Telangana doctors stand united against ‘mixopathy’

HYDERABAD: Medics, especially PG students and resident doctors, are hoping that the Telangana government and Health Department strongly protest at the Centre against the Central Council of Indian Medicine’s (CCIM) new gazette notification which allows Ayurveda doctors to perform 58 surgical procedures traditionally conducted by allopathy doctors. 

The representatives of the Telangana Junior Doctor Association (T-JUDA) met the Director of Medical Education (DME) on Friday and objected to the notification in writing. They also took out a rally from the Osmania Medical College to the DME’s office.  One of the key points of contention is how allopathy MBBS students have to undergo NEET or EXIT, while Ayurveda practitioners can laterally enter allopathy services. 

“The Centre’s ambitious ‘one nation one system’ policy in medical education will be a ‘cocktail of disaster’ and the public will be subjected to immense problems by this decision,” a representation by Osmania Medical College JUDA president Dr P Rohit stated.

Teaching hospitals such as RIMS Adilabad and NIMS also organised protests throughout the day. Apart from lodging their protest with the decision-makers in the State, the students also staged roadside protests and dharnas to educate the people about the consequences of this decision. Calling it ‘Mixopathy’ the doctors noted that this will first affect the poor and the needy, who are already suffering at the hands of quacks.  

The Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) Telangana chapter also held protests across various private hospitals and institutions. At the Basavatarakam Cancer Hospital, nearly 100 doctors staged a sit-in protest outside the hospital demanding that the gazette notification be rolled back. The gazette notification is likely to specifically impact general surgeries, urology, surgical gastroenterology, ENT, ophthalmology and dental medicine.

Notification to impact several fields 
T-JUDA representatives met the Director of Medical Education and objected to the CCIM’s new gazette notification which allows Ayurveda doctors to perform 58 surgical procedures traditionally conducted by allopathy doctors. One of the key points of contention is how allopathy MBBS students have to undergo NEET or EXIT, while Ayurveda practitioners can laterally enter allopathy services. The gazette notification is likely to specifically impact general surgeries, urology, surgical gastroenterology, ENT, ophthalmology and dental medicine