Delhi: Industry body backs healthcare reforms

New Delhi: A top healthcare industry body, NATHEALTH, has recommended to NITI Aayog to consider a number of reforms that would allow private hospitals across the country to offer Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats to their full potential and capacity. This recommendation was made in the light of shortage in the number of specialty doctors in the country. NATHEALTH suggested that the private sector could work with the government in order to increase the number of DNB seats across the country.

NATHEALTH said in a statement that they have identified the challenges and opportunities in the private sector that they can explore and create a more desirable environment for the DNB students. This reform would not only help the private sector to boost their capacity, but also help NITI Aayog to achieve their objective of increasing DNB PG seats to 22,000 by 2022. The DNB accreditation, which is currently granted to individual hospital units on the basis of fulfillment of eligibility criteria independently, limits the number of DNB seats in a hospital chain. Increasing the number of seats would mean that the individual unit could qualify if they rotate the DNB students in the different units of the same hospital groups, even if each individual unit do not qualify by themselves. “We have a large main unit hospital but multiple smaller units which do not qualify independently, but have the capacity as a chain to expand the intake of DNB students significantly,” said NATHEALTH president Dr H. Sudarshan Ballal.