The Times of India                 16.04.2013

The VMC standing committee took a decision in this regard last week by clearing a proposal sent by the administration earlier.

VMC standing committee chairman Vijay Shah said the registration will ensure that the civic body has the entire picture of the number of nursing homes and hospitals in the city along with the number of beds available under various specialities. "The hospitals will also give us details of other infrastructure with them," he said.

Shah said this would ensure that during outbreak of a disease, the civic body had on hand data regarding the facilities available for the treatment. He said based on the number of beds available with a nursing home or hospital, it could also be asked to isolate some of these for uses in case of outbreak like swine flu.

Following the registration, the hospitals can also be asked to comply with the reporting or submission of data regarding various diseases. These could include epidemics, outbreak of diseases like dengue, malaria, tuberculosis, chikungunya, etc. For the hospitals, the registration would be a major help as for several formalities, including medical insurance, the number is asked by various organizations. In the absence of this, the hospitals have to convince such organizations to consider their shops and establishment registration number.