Private hospitals in Hyderabad will shut down for 12 hours (6 am- 6 pm) on December 11, in protest against the Health Ministry for allowing PG students of Ayurveda to receive formal training for general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology and dental procedures. Except for emergency services, other treatments will not be provided during the hours of the strike. The call for the protest has been given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which has been strongly protesting against the government’s decision.
On November 20, amending the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) issued a gazette notification allowing postgraduate Ayurveda students to undergo training for 58 surgical procedures in general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology and dentistry.
In protest against this, the IMA, which describes itself as an “organization of Doctors of Modern Scientific System of Medicine”, have called for a national strike, and urged their regional chapters to make the protest a success. The IMA has termed the move of clubbing Ayurveda with modern medicine as “mixopathy.” A tweet that it put out minced no words, and read: “No mixopathy.. IMA will resist and fight back this criminal plagiarism.”
Speaking to TNM, Dr Sanjeev Singh Yadav, the Telangana secretary of the IMA, said, “All the hospitals would remain closed from 6 am- 6pm. The National Medical Commission, which is supposed to work in the interest of the medical community, is working against the basic ethics of medicine. World over, modern medicine is growing leaps and bounds, so what is the necessity to train ayurvedic students to treat people? India has a good medical tourism economy - our doctors are globally recognized and the cost here is less compared to other countries providing the same treatment. And if ayurvedic practitioners are allowed to perform surgeries, which is a result of modern medicine, will this industry grow or decline?”
He added, “We have taken the step to close down the establishments asking the government to revoke the notification. If the government does not heed our demands, our national body will take further drastic steps.”
Reacting to the government’s decision, Dr Rajan Sharma, national president of the IMA had earlier said, “Like never before, modern medicine (in India) is facing a severe onslaught on its integrity.”
He said that the recent notification of the CCIM under the AYUSH Ministry, which is allowing 58 surgical procedures in PG courses of Ayurveda under Shalyatantra and Shalakyatantra, was “nothing less than poaching on modern medicine.” He added, “Nothing can be more cruel to the health system of this country by creating this fake system.”