Ahmedabad: The state govt on Friday announced the formation of the state allied and healthcare council for the regulation of healthcare courses. The council will have 15 members. In all, 56 allied healthcare courses are recognised in 10 categories.
The state govt has also announced the formation of four boards — undergraduate allied and healthcare education board, post graduate allied and healthcare education board, allied and healthcare professions assessment and rating board and allied and healthcare professions ethics and registration board.
“The UG and PG healthcare education boards will decide the standards of healthcare education and review faculty development, recognising allied healthcare professionals and educational courses. The assessment and rating board will review the existing organisations and decide on the required human resources and the addition of seats. The organisations will be evaluated and ranked by the board,” a senior official said.
The ethics and registration board will maintain a live state register for allied healthcare professionals and regulate professional conduct.
The state currently has 4,810 seats for physiotherapy, 310 seats for optometry, 10 seats for occupational therapy and 10 seats for prosthetics. Gujarat joined 14 other states that issued notifications for such councils.
“About 16,000-odd practising physiotherapists will now be included in the newly formed council. The boards will also issue SOPs and professional guidelines and take punitive action for violations. Some of the broad categories for the boards include medical laboratory and life sciences, trauma, burns care and surgical technology, physiotherapy, nutrition science, occupational therapy, community care, behavioural health sciences, medical radiology, imaging and therapeutics among others.