The National Council for Clinical Establishments (NCCE) has recommended its office to prepare a draft of minimum standards for the disposal of unused or expired drugs for clinical establishments, in line with its efforts to establish minimum standards for clinical establishments dealing with various specialties.
It has also recommended forming a committee of Emergency physicians to update the list of emergency drugs and equipment as part of minimum standards of allopathic clinical establishments.
The Council, in its 14th meeting held in May 10, 2024, noted that in line with the recommendations in the previous meeting held in 2023, it has approved minimum standards for notification, and constituted various sub-committees for drafting the minimum standards of various other types of clinical establishments. While the meeting was held in May, minutes of the meeting was released by the Council recently.
As part of these discussions, the National Council apprised that minimum standards may be drafted for disposal of unused or expired drugs and presented in the national council meeting.
The Council recommended its Secretariat to prepare a draft of "Minimum standards for the disposal of unused/expired drugs for all the clinical establishments ensuring each clinical establishment has a designated area accessible to the public as well for drug disposal".
It may be noted that the Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC) is also in the process of finalising a draft guidance document on safe disposal of unused or expired medicines, and has recently recommended the sub-committee assigned to prepare the draft, to look into the procedures related to disposal of such medicines by the general public.
The NCCE, in its latest meeting, also reviewed the minimum standards of allopathic clinical establishments, especially for cosmetology, point of care testing, hair transplant centres and prosthetics and orthotics clinical establishment, and after discussions, pointed out that the list of essential medicines need revision as per National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) for all the minimum standards. In the emergency list of equipment it was suggested to add an oxygen concentrator in all the documents.
The minimum standards for prosthetics and orthosis clinical establishments will be redrafted in consultation with the NCAHP department.
The minimum standards for Point of Care Testing (POCT) should be revised to be more simplified. POCT techniques and results must be certified by the CDSCO where required, tested by ICMR, and certified by the hospital’s clinical establishment committee. Any POCT licensed for use in the country by the regulator and tested for efficacy should be included, it added.
Minimum standards for ophthalmology day care centre, wellness centres, trauma and emergency management, human milk bank, general day care centre, stem cell therapy centre, sample collection and sample transport mechanism and mortuary are in the process of drafting and once drafted, will be presented to the Council for approval.
The Council also said that while the minimum standard for executive health check-ups should not be notified to avoid mushrooming of such types of facilities, an essential list of health checkups for different age groups may be defined.
A total of 13 minimum standards are in the process of Gazette notification, including on various types of clinic/polyclinics, various levels of hospitals, mobile clinics, mobile dental van, collection centres, dietetics and physiotherapy centres.
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