The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare (NABH) providers has cautioned all the allopathic hospitals which are accredited with it that they might have to face withdrawal of accreditation if they were found them employing any Ayush doctors for conducting clinical duties in ICUs and other patient care areas instead of MBBS resident medical officers (RMOs) and casualty doctors.

On Thursday, a “cautionary notice” was issued by the board stating that it is anobvious violation of NABH standards for healthcare accreditation and is against the patient safety norms and should not compromise on the quality of modern medicine clinical care results. In October, it was reported that the appointing Ayush doctors in ICUs for night duty is a common practice in several private hospitals, mostly in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The notice stated that the NABH has taken it seriously and repeated that appointing Ayush doctors in allopathic hospitals for written medical work and clinical management without supervision of allopathic doctors is not allowed. Instead, the allopathic hospitals employ such doctors to work as clinical assistants, under certain applicable state laws. They should not be allowed in direct patient care and should also strictly follow their job responsibilities as defined by hospital management.

Ayush doctors who are working in allopathic hospitals won’t be considered by the NABH as RMOs in the process of evaluation and for the purpose of accreditation. The order further added that any violation can have adverse decisions by NABH, which might include withdrawal of accreditation.

The NABH is carrying out surprise inspections in several private hospitals and is yet to have a fixed list of states that are allowing Ayush doctors to be employed in allopathic hospitals. Whether these doctors are used to prescribe a pre-defined set of allopathic medicines or to perform certain clinical procedures after finishing a bridge course.

NABH officials have explained that the board’s legal team is in the process of defining the status of the law in different states.

Source: ET Healthworld