On August 12th, 2024, the Hon Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, heard a Public interest litigation filed by the Joint Forum of Medical Technologists of India (JFMTI) on the Implementation of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, which was passed by the Indian Parliament in March 2021 and came into force on May 25th, 2021.
As of now, only 14 states and union territories have constituted the council, and the ones in place are all nonfunctional. The Hon. Supreme Court issued a strong directive to the union and state governments to implement the NCAHP Act by October 15th, 2024. It also observed that the union and state governments have completely failed to discharge their statutory responsibilities.
I read Akshat Jain’s article on the online news website, The Print, dated 13 August 2024. I realised that the understanding of the NCAHP Act, including any sense of an allied health professional and a healthcare professional, is considerably inadequate. It is unsurprising that many of my fellow professionals also are not conversant with the NCAHP Act and its meaning. This article is my way of joining the debate.
As a Physiotherapist, I interpret the NCAHP Act from the physiotherapist’s point of view. The act covers 56 recognised categories, known as Allied and Healthcare professionals.
The primary purpose of the act is to
- Regulate education and services
- Maintain a union and state register of professionals and assess institutions.
- To improve access, research, development, and scientific advancement.
By definition, the NCAHP Act is categorised into two professional groups.
- Allied Health Professional: Who has 2 to 4 years of education with 2000 hours of education.
- Healthcare Professional: Someone who has 3 to 6 years of education and no less than 3000 to 6000 hours of education.
The state governments shall constitute a state council, which has four autonomous boards:
- Undergraduate Allied and Healthcare Education Board
- Post-graduate allied and healthcare education board
- Allied and healthcare professions assessments and rating board.
- Allied and Healthcare professions ethics and registration board.
Following this, a Physiotherapy professional is described in the act schedule under serial 3. I quote from the NCAHP Act:
“Physiotherapy Professional is a person who practices physiotherapy by undertaking comprehensive examination and appropriate investigation, provides treatment and advice to any persons preparatory to or for the purpose of or in connection with movement or functional dysfunction, malfunction, disorder, disability, healing and pain from trauma and disease, using physical modalities including exercise, mobilization, manipulations, electrical and thermal agents and other electro therapeutics for prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, health promotion and fitness. The physiotherapist can practice independently or as a part of a multi-disciplinary team and has a minimum qualification of a baccalaureate degree”
For more details, read the following blog titled: Scope, Boundaries, and Tools of Physiotherapy Under the NCAHP Act 2021: A Detailed Analysis