The Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare Services, Government of Karnataka (“Commissionerate”) has issued a circular on Simplification of registration under Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act (“KPME Act”).
Previously, the KPME Act was amended in 2017 and a new portal for registration & renewal by Private Medical Establishments (www.kpme.karnataka.gov.in) was launched in February 2020.Various associations of private medical establishments have given suggestions for simplifying & streamlining new registrations & renewals. Based on the series of discussions held following changes are being made in the process.
Key Highlights
1. No requirement of trade license: At present private medical establishments require trade license for registration & renewal. Medical service, which is an essential one, serves the community and are not trading bodies, hence, trade licence is not required. Based on the grounds, the requirement of obtaining a trade license is not mandatory in several States and as in our State, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector does not require trade license, so mandatory trade license clause for registration and renewal of private medical establishments is hereby relaxed.
2. No requirement of occupancy certificate: Due to difficulty faced by the private medical establishment to upload the occupancy certificate during online registrations, producing of occupancy certificate is discontinued, instead of that Khata/ Tax paid receipt/ lease agreement/ rental agreement will be sufficient for this purpose.
3. Auto renewal: Auto renewal is introduced to simplify renewal process after payment of prescribed fees. There is no need to upload the documents etc.
4. No requirement of verifier: Verifying process is additional step in the process of registration & renewal, which is dispensed with henceforth. Documents shall be verified during the process of inspection.
5. Dealing with old applications: Online process is started in February 2020 before which both manual and online registration was allowed, and many establishments paid fee through demand draft. Applications of private medical establishments, who have paid demand draft are still pending for consideration at various districts. Hence its instructed that those who have already paid DD in earlier manual system may continue the process of registration through online system by paying the difference amount fee through khajane in case the earlier DD is valid.
6. Deemed application certificate: Deemed approval shall be enabled once the registering authority fails to either approve or reject in the online system within mandatory 90 days. The portal will generate an authorised “Deemed Approval Certificate”. Detailed in this regard will be issued in course of time.
Source: Commissionerate of Health and Family Welfare Services, Government of Karnataka
