Centre to bring bill to establish a Central Healthcare Council

Council would try to standardise and regulate allied healthcare profession education

The Centre proposes to come out with a bill to establish a Central Healthcare Council to standardise and regulate allied healthcare profession education, Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

"Yes. A bill to form a council for unregulated allied health professionals is under discussion. The proposed bill is to establish a Central Healthcare Council to standardise and regulate allied healthcare profession education. It is under discussion in the Ministry," Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste said in a written reply.

Replying to another question, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said the government also proposes to establish a Medical Technology Assessment Board (MTAB) in the Department of Health Research which would recommend technologies (drugs, devices, method of treatment, etc.) in the area of health after evaluating them on their efficacy, appropriateness and cost-effectiveness.

This would serve as an important tool in prioritising national health spending and help achieve universal health coverage by providing affordable healthcare.

"MTAB would facilitate the process of decision-making in healthcare at the Central and State policy level by providing reliable information based on scientific evidence and develop systems and mechanisms to assess new and existing health technologies by transparent and inclusive processes," he said.

It would also appraise health interventions and technologies based on available data on resource use, cost, clinical effectiveness and safety and collect and analyse evidence in a systematic and reproducible way and ensure its accessibility and usefulness to inform health policy.

It would also disseminate research findings and be resulting policy decisions to educate and empower the public to make better-informed decisions for health.