Approximately, 70 % of doctors in government and private hospitals kept away from duty on from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday in Ernakulam district, heeding the call for a national strike called by the IMA to protest against the Centre’s decision to allow post-graduate Ayurveda practitioners to perform general surgeries.
Doctors attended to COVID-19 patients and those who needed emergency care, said Dr. T.V. Ravi, president of the IMA Cochin chapter, which has 2,800 doctors as members. The new notification permitting Ayurveda doctors, who have attended a crash course, to perform 58 types of surgeries that were hitherto done by qualified allopathic doctors, will have disastrous consequences. The Centre’s move is presumed to provide health care to people in rural areas of North Indian States, where acute scarcity of qualified doctors often leads to inadequate emergency care and deaths. This is not the situation in South India, especially Kerala. The move at introducing “mixopathy” could result in post-operative infections and even deaths, he said.
The dilution of surgical standards would affect the goodwill enjoyed by Indian doctors worldwide. The British Medical Council had already denounced it. Furthermore, it would affect the prospects of MBBS degree holders seeking higher education abroad. “Our opinion is that Ayurveda by itself is a great system of medicine. Mixing it with allopathy will lead to disastrous consequences. We will also fight the issue legally,” Dr Ravi said.
The district secretary of KGMOA, Dr. Cyril G. Cherian, said that the body had always been demanding that the two systems of medicine retain their unique traits and strengths. “As a mode of treatment, allopathy evolved after much tests and trials. It played a key role in improving the average global life expectancy from 40 years to 70 years. As a surgeon, I know how difficult it is to perform surgeries. One also needs to thoroughly know how to manage complications that could arise during and after surgery. Attempts by the Ministry of Ayush to mix up both modes of treatment does not augur well for anyone,” he said.
