The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Friday called a strike to protest against the decision of the Centre to allow Ayurvedic medical practitioners to perform surgery. The outpatient department (OPD) services in both government and private hospitals in Bihar due to the strike. According to the sources, the patients arrived at the hospitals, but the doctors did not attend to them.
The Resident Doctor’s Association (RDA), AIIMS sported black ribbons while carrying out their duties, in protest against Centre’s move to allow Ayurveda doctors to perform surgery. “Mixing modern medicine & Ayurveda is wrong. Operation for cataract is done by an eye specialist after yrs of training. One shouldn’t be made to do this after 2-6 months of training. It’ll be dangerous & affect modern medicine & Ayurveda,” Dr Amandeep Singh, vice president, AIIMS RDA said.
At Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) the registration of patients began in the morning, however, the striking doctors forced closure of the registration counter and patients were left high and dry. At IGIMS also the OPD service was closed after 12 noon.
State IMA secretary Dr Sunil Kumar claimed the health services, including planned surgeries, were badly affected following the strike called by the IMA.
“The next course of action will be decided after a meeting of national level office-bearers in New Delhi on Friday. Our action will depend on the assurance given by the government. The government by taking a unilateral decision to allow Ayurvedic doctors to perform surgery is playing with the health of common people, as they were not properly trained for the job,” he said to Hindustan Times.
Dr Kumar said in the state capital no OPD service besides planned surgeries were performed in the hospitals, including NMCH, PMCH, IGIMS and AIIMS-Patna.
“However, the emergency and Covid-19 services remained unaffected in the state,” he said.