New Delhi: Proliferation of illegal healthcare providers is a matter of serious concern, said the Supreme Court as it directed the central government to implement a 2021 law dealing with paramedics with immediate effect. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021, was brought in by the Centre to protect the public against illegal institutional bodies, but has been a dead letter ever since its enactment.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the Joint Forum of Medical Technologists of India who have approached the top court, arguing that the government has repeatedly delayed implementing the 2021 law intended to regulate allied healthcare professionals, including those in x-ray and radiotherapy. The forum is seeking the law’s immediate enforcement.
Allied healthcare professionals, or AHPs, are specialised persons who support healthcare operations in settings operated by doctors or professionals. They perform functions such as conducting x-rays and serving as operation theatre technicians or radiotherapy technologists.
The Centre had introduced the National Commission for Allied & Healthcare Professions Act 2021 to regulate such professionals through a National and State Commission.
However, the central government failed to notify the “rules”, or the specific guidelines regarding the functioning of the Commission.
Against such inaction, JFMTI has now filed a writ petition before the SC, pulling up more than 41 parties, including the Centre and respective governments of states and Union territories, contending a violation of its fundamental rights, such as right to life and profession.
ThePrint explains the scope of the 2021 law.
Who is an AHP
The 2021 law provides a broad definition of an allied healthcare professional as someone “…who is trained to perform any technical and practical task to support diagnosis and treatment of illness, disease, injury or impairment, and to support implementation of any healthcare treatment and referral plan recommended by a medical, nursing or any other healthcare professional, and who has obtained any qualification of diploma or degree under [the] Act…”.
The degree/diploma prescribed under the Act requires a minimum of 200 hours of instruction taught over a period of two years.
One of the key changes which was introduced by the law is the setting up of a central National Commission clubbed under 10 categories, with an aim to regulate the practice of such AHPs.
Functions of the commission include the framing of standards for education or practice of such AHPs, creation of a database, and ensuring quality of the curricula delivered during their draining.
This means that the Act created a similar standard regulator to prescribe qualifications and regulate working conditions — like the National Medical Commission for doctors — leading to standardisation and maintenance of quality healthcare.
Registration with the National Commission also means that an AHP can perform certain exclusive activities, such as holding positions in government institutions, provide such services in recognised categories, or sign as an AHP.
Like the national commission, states are also mandated to set up a state commission for registration.
Registration with the state would hold as good as registration with the national commission.
However, even registration with the states has not been operationalised yet.
The 2021 law also provides for recognition of such degrees which are acquired abroad. This is critical for ‘equivalence’ of degrees, meaning that a similar qualification acquired by a person abroad can hold good to practice as an AHP in India.
Why has the Act not been operationalised
Under Section 66 of the law, the Centre has the power to frame rules so that the above activities can be carried out.
“The Commission may, after public consultation and with the previous approval of the Central Government, make regulations generally to carry out the purposes of this Act,” the legislation states.
However, it has been claimed by the petitioners that the law has not been operationalised because rules have not been framed under the law. Government has repeatedly cited Covid-19 as a reason to delay implementation, it has been claimed in the petition.
Since the qualifications and standards need to be set-up by the National Commission, it is only once the Commission is set up that such rules can be framed under the law.
States, too, have not complied with the provisions of law which require them to set up the respective state commissions under Section 68 of the Act.
It is on this basis of non-implementation that the petitioners have claimed a violation of their fundamental rights such as right to life and right to practice one’s profession, which are guaranteed under Part-III of the Constitution.
As soon as the Government frames rules on the subject, it is likely that the law will be operationalised and the AHP profession shall be standardised.
Akshat Jain is a student of the National Law University, Delhi, and an intern with ThePrint.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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