With a people-centric approach, consultants, including engineers, architects and health experts, will soon be appointed to oversee the development work in these hospitals.

"The accreditation is about procedures, keeping records. It should be people friendly and not department friendly. Once the system is in place, complaints will be docu mented and procedures will become transparent," added Wahi.

Though there have been attempts in some states to institutionalise uniform standards for hospitals, except for Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai, no other hospital in the country has got an accreditation from the Joint Commission for Accreditation.

Another important condition for hospitals seeking accreditation is that the systems should be accessible and acceptable to service seekers.

Also the services should be userfriendly, information on services should be available to users and grievances redressing services should be in place.