Gujarat assembly passes bill to extend deadline for provisional registration of hospitals, labs

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat assembly on Friday unanimously passed a bill to amend a 2022 law to extend the deadline by six months for clinical establishments, including hospitals, to apply for provisional registration. Under the Gujarat Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which received support from opposition parties, including the Congress, the time for applying for provisional registration of health institutions in the state has been extended by six months.

Now, clinical establishments such as clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, laboratories or imaging centres can apply for provisional registration till September 12, 2025. The previous deadline of one year will end on March 12, 2025. As per government estimate, there are nearly 50,000 clinical establishments in Gujarat.

The amendment bill, tabled by Health Minister Rushikesh Patel, was passed unanimously in the ongoing budget session of the assembly as the opposition Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also supported the BJP government's move. The original Gujarat Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act was passed by the Assembly in 2021 and came into existence in November 2022 through a notification.

The Act was brought for the registration and regulation of clinical establishments. As per the original Act, all healthcare institutions in the state were supposed to apply for registration by March 12, 2015, said Patel. "As per our estimate, there are nearly 50,000 clinical establishments in the state. Of these, nearly 25,000 have already applied for registration. It is considered necessary to provide reasonable time to others for making an application as mandated under the law. Thus, we are extending the deadline till September 12, 2025," he said. In another amendment, the bill proposes that "yoga and naturopathy", which were part of the definition of "recognised systems of medicine" in the original Act for the purpose of registration, be excluded from the definition.

This means clinical establishments of "allopathy, ayurveda, homeopathy, siddha and unani" systems of medicines will be required to apply for registration under this Act in Gujarat. As per the original Act, running a clinical establishment without registration would attract a fine ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

Failure to comply with directions of the authorized person or refusal to furnish relevant information would attract Rs 5 lakh fine, said Patel. The assembly also passed a bill to repeal the Gujarat State Council for Physiotherapy Act, 2011. This council was no longer required after the Gujarat government recently formed the State Allied and Healthcare Council as per provisions of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021", said Patel.