NEW DELHI: The Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) will start a department of integrated medicine next week to provide treatment services in Ayurveda and other streams of AYUSH to the patients. The institute’s director Dr Subhash Giri told this newspaper that the plan is to start an OPD in AYUSH treatment methodology from Monday onwards.
“Department of Integrated Medicine will be started in Sucheta Kripalani Hospital. For this, an agreement was signed a few days ago between LHMC and the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) of the Union Ministry of AYUSH,” he said.
He said that an entire floor in the OPD block has been given to operationalize the new department where AYUSH experts and doctors will together treat patients of chronic diseases with the combined use of Allopathy, Ayurveda, naturopathy, and yoga.
“There are many health complications like joint pain, chest condition, etc which are not completely cured by Allopathy medicines and turn into lifelong ailments. All such complications can be treated by doctors of Allopathy, AYUSH, and naturopathy in the Department of Integrated Medicine,” Dr Giri said.
However, the move is facing resistance from faculty members who are calling the initiative unnecessary and are especially against assigning duties to modern medicine doctors in the new department.
“I know there is a resistance among a few members. But I want to clarify that nothing is being imposed. Things are not finalized yet. AYUSH practitioners won’t impose their methodology on the doctors. I expect all of them to work in harmony for the betterment of the patient care,” Giri clarified.