NABH Standards for Ayush Treatment and Wellness Centres (1st Edition), Explained

What the standard covers

NABH's Accreditation Standards for Ayush Treatment and Wellness Centres (ATWC), 1st Edition, became effective on 1 April 2025. In NABH's words, the standards are "applicable to all Ayush Treatment and Wellness Centres (including Panchakarma Clinics)" that provide OPD or day-care services and want to be accredited.

The standard defines such a centre as one where qualified Ayush doctors, along with trained professionals, provide therapeutic and preventive treatments through any Ayush system:

• Ayurveda
• Yoga and Naturopathy
• Unani
• Siddha
• Homoeopathy
• Sowa-Rigpa

The standards apply to the whole centre, not to a single service within it, and to public and private centres alike.

Which NABH programme fits your Ayush facility?

NABH's Panchakarma clinic programme page still lists the 2017 Panchakarma standards with their own eligibility (two or more tables, six months of operation) and fees, while the ATWC standard names Panchakarma clinics in its scope. Until NABH aligns the two, confirm in writing which standard and fee your application will use before you start documentation.

Eligibility

Before applying, a centre must:

• have operated as a healthcare provider for at least three months;
• commit to complying with NABH's standards and all applicable legal, statutory and regulatory requirements.

The 10 chapters

The first five chapters are patient-centred and the last five organisation-centred.

Management of Medication is the largest chapter, with 30 elements, which tells you where assessors will spend their time: how oils, kashayams and other medicines are sourced, prepared, labelled, stored and dispensed. Patient Rights and Education, at 20 elements, comes next.

The six AAC standards show how the chapter is scaled down from the hospital standard: the centre defines and displays its scope of services; registers patients and refers them appropriately; identifies each patient's needs through an established assessment; runs laboratory and imaging services, if it provides them, within its scope; and has a discharge process and defined discharge summary in case it admits patients.

The four levels

How a centre is scored

Each objective element is scored on a five-point scale, where 5 means almost all samples (81–100%) meet the requirement. To be accredited, a centre needs:

• an overall compliance rate of at least 80%;
• a score of at least 4 on every Core element;
• an average of at least 4 for each standard and each chapter;
• no standard with more than one element scored 2 or less.

Cycle and process

Accreditation is valid for four years, with a mid-term surveillance assessment at 21–24 months. Accredited centres must apply for renewal six months before expiry.

The process runs through an optional pre-assessment, the application, the final assessment, review by the NABH secretariat, your corrective actions on any findings, and the accreditation committee's decision before the certificate is issued. The standards document does not list fees; check the current figures with NABH when you apply.

What assessors will look for in practice

• Written protocols for each therapy you offer, with indications, contraindications, preparation and monitoring.
• Therapy-specific consent explained in the patient's language.
• Medicine and oil management: licensed sources, labelling, dating, storage, expiry control and records of in-house preparation.
• Qualified people: Ayush doctors supervising, therapists with documented training and competence checks.
• Infection prevention: cleaning of therapy rooms, droni and tables between patients, and linen management.
• Facility safety: fire safety, emergency preparedness and a plan for a patient who deteriorates during therapy.
• Records that let an assessor trace each patient from registration to the end of treatment.

How to start

1. Read the standard; NABH publishes the ATWC 1st Edition as a PDF on its portal.
2. Confirm with NABH which programme and fee apply to your centre.
3. Run a gap analysis against all 141 elements, marking the 38 Core elements first.
4. Implement for at least three months, keeping the records assessors will sample.
5. Apply online and prepare your team for the final assessment.

NABH also runs a Programme on Implementation training course on its 1st Edition Ayush standards. If you would rather have the gap analysis done for you, our Panchakarma clinic and AYUSH entry-level pages explain how we work, or ask us for a free assessment.