Condemning the notification on amendment to the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) Act, doctors owing allegiance to the Indian Medical Association (IMA), AP Government Doctors’ Association (APGDA) and medical students staged a protest, demanding its immediate withdrawal.
The participants, wearing black badges, raised slogans and carried banners denouncing the move, which they described as a ‘step to legitimise mixopathy’, at the entrance of the administration block of the King George Hospital (KGH) here on Tuesday. N. Subrahmanyam, State president, IMA, Vijayasekhar, CWC member, IMA, AP, P.A. Ramani, president IMA, Visakhapatnam, B. Ramesh and Y.G.S. Raju of APGDA participated.
Dr. Subrahmanyam and Dr. Ramani said that the recent change in policy and the medical pluralism advocated by the National Education Policy, 2020, and the four committees of NITI Aayog for officially integrating the different systems of medicine in medical education, practice, public health and research would ring the death knell for the modern medicine system as a whole.
The notification of the amendment to the CCIM Act allows Ayurveda doctors to do 58 types of surgeries, including various abdominal operations, various ENT and eye operations. The IMA wondered as to how Ayurvedic doctors can perform surgeries in the absence of anaesthesia and antibiotics in Ayurveda.
Dr. Viajayasekhar wondered whether the politicians and officials would get their family members be operated by such doctors or allow their children to study such integrated medical courses. He sought involvement of professional bodies before taking such policy decisions.
