Andhra Pradesh government releases draft regulations for private AYUSH hospitals and clinics

The Story in Brief

The Andhra Pradesh government has published draft regulations to make registration mandatory for all private AYUSH facilities – Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Unani, Siddha and Yoga & Naturopathy – after amending the Andhra Pradesh Private Medical Care Establishments Act, 2002 and issuing a gazette on 10 April bringing AYUSH under Act No. 18/2026. The ‘Andhra Pradesh AYUSH Private Medical Care Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Rules‑2026’, prepared after studying neighbouring States, classify establishments into seven categories by bed strength, from single‑doctor clinics to hospitals with over 200 beds. Applications must go through the Clinical Establishment online portal; applicants receive a provisional registration for 90 days and an inspection by medical experts within ten days. Permanent registration, valid five years, requires compliance with standards on infrastructure, equipment, staffing, sanitation, biomedical waste management, pharmacy, laboratories and patient records. The draft sets penalties including fines, suspension or cancellation, mandates display of charges, services and doctors’ names in Telugu and English, and proposes fees from ₹3,000 to ₹50,000. Public suggestions are invited via ayush.ap.gov.in or [email protected] within two weeks.

The Indian Opinion

These draft rules extend formal oversight to AYUSH providers; that is a regulatory measure rather than a headline-making action. Readers should avoid extreme interpretations that the rules are either an immediate crackdown on traditional practitioners or an automatic quality guarantee, because the draft chiefly specifies process, categories and compliance standards, not detailed enforcement or support mechanisms. The article does not explain how small clinics will be helped to meet infrastructure or biomedical-waste requirements, nor how the fee scale was determined; those gaps are important for judging whether the rules will be practicable. The public consultation period offers a chance to raise such practical concerns before the rules are finalised.

Original article: A.P. govt. issues draft regulations for private AYUSH facilities (www.thehindu.com)

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