New Delhi: The Union government has set in motion an effort to prescribe minimum standards of services for skin, hair, cosmetology and dental cosmetology clinics across India.
The initiative comes amid concerns that many such clinics are carrying out procedures without medical supervision, through staff who lack the requisite training.
Senior government officials in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told ThePrint that, over the last one year, sub-committees had been set up for each of these specialisations in order to define minimum standards of services and standards for them under the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010.
The Act provides for the introduction of rules to govern all public and private therapeutic and diagnostic centres, including single-doctor clinics.
While a total of 19 states and Union territories have adopted the Act — which seeks to prescribe mandatory minimum standards for infrastructure and equipment, personnel, patient safety and treatment protocols to ensure that patients receive quality healthcare — none of them has notified rules under the law so far.
“We want to define standards for these centres so that the states enforcing the Act, and the clinics themselves, have a reference point,” said a senior ministry official.
“The sub-committees set up for the purpose have had a meeting each and they are working towards defining ways that can be used to regulate these clinics.”
These panels, the official added, had representatives from the ministry, specialists from the relevant sectors, as well as officials from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), a body under the Union commerce ministry’s Quality Council of India.
When contacted, Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant said the panels had been formed following instructions from the Delhi High Court.
In May last year, a petition was filed in the court after a 35-year-old Delhi man died following a botched hair transplantation procedure.
Noting that the procedure was carried out in a salon by a technician without the supervision of a medical professional, the court had issued directions to the National Medical Commission, the Delhi Medical Council and the health ministry, to check such practices.
According to Pant, the directive issued to the ministry said the “government should ensure that such mushrooming salons carrying [out] hair transplantation procedures under unprofessional hands without requisite qualification and in absence of medical supervision are checked”.
It also said that requisite safeguards need to be ensured for the safety of persons who undertake these treatments, and that the public at large needs to be made aware that such hair transplantation procedures or aesthetic surgeries can be fatal if performed by unqualified professionals, and require strict medical supervision.
In case any such medical protocols have not been established for guidance of medical practitioners, the same need to be framed at the national level, the court added.
The health ministry said it does not have data on the number of skin, hair, cosmetology and dental cosmetology clinics.
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‘Breeding grounds for unethical practices’
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior dermatologist with a Delhi-based government hospital said skin, hair, cosmetology and dental cosmetology clinics must be regulated in the interest of patient safety.
“In our country, thе beauty and wеllnеss industry is seeing an immense growth and thе absеncе of firm rеgulations means that a large number of individuals sееking skincarе and haircarе are at risk of being exploited and harmed,” the dermatologist added, requesting anonymity.
According to Dr Lalitha Palle, a clinician and healthcare entrepreneur, without proper ovеrsight, many such centres have become brееding grounds for unethical practices, putting unaware patients at risk of substandard trеatmеnts, misdiagnosеs, and even sеrious hеalth complications.
“Regulation not only safеguards thе physical hеalth of cliеnts but also protеcts thеir еmotional and psychological wеll-bеing,” she said.
Thе absence of rеgulation, Palle said, allows for thе prolifеration of untеstеd procedures, putting consumеrs at risk of financial еxploitation and bodily harm.
“The nееd to rеgulatе skin and hair clinics in India transcеnds vanity. It is a vital stеp towards еnsuring thе safеty, confidеncе, and ovеrall hеalth of thе nation’s citizеns,” she added.
“It is high timе that India’s bеauty and wеllnеss industry evolves into a rеsponsiblе and еthical sеctor, committed to thе well-being of patients above all еlsе,” she said.
Dr Mahesh Verma, a senior prosthodontist and vice-chancellor of the Indraprastha University in Delhi, said that regulating dental cosmetology clinics was also important as they draw a large number of patients from abroad to India every year.
According to an estimate by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the ‘Medical Value Travel’ industry in India gets maximum patients for heart surgery, knee transplant, cosmetic surgery and dental care.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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