THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:A meeting convened by allopathy doctors under the banner of Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) on Tuesday decided to launch strong protests against a government order allowing Ayurveda and Homoeopathy students to train in allopathy. In the first phase, it will conduct a state-wide protest on Friday, which will be followed by a Secretariat sit-in by doctors and medical students on July 25. According to the doctors, if the government doesn’t withdraw the said order within this time frame it will be forced to intensify its protests.
“It seems the Health Secretary on his own had come out with such an order. When we met the secretary before the release of the said order, the officer had assured us it will only be implemented after providing us with the opportunity to hold talks with the Health Minister. But the secretary had taken a U-turn in the matter,” said a joint statement by the IMA and KGMOA.
While stating the Indian Medical Council, Travancore-Cochin Medical Council and Paramedical Council had expressed their reservation over providing ‘observership’ programme to Ayurveda and Homoeopathy students, the associations further alleged the Health Secretary had overlooked the observations of the said bodies while coming out with such an order.
“As per the order, the ‘observership’ programme allows students of Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) and Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medical and Surgery (BHMS) to get an understanding of postmortem, surgery and gynaecology procedures. But our point is the said decision is nothing but a breach into a patient’s privacy,” said N Sulphi, state secretary, IMA.
He also said the associations fear the certificate is provided to these students after completing the ‘observership’ programme, and it might be used by them for conducting treatment and surgery. This will put the public healthcare sector in jeopardy, he said.
“The said move might be a backdoor approach of the authorities concerned to appoint underqualified doctors in primary health centres, which at present is facing staff crunch. Such a move will only help to put a patient’s life at jeopardy,” said E K Ummer, president, IMA.
The other day, the Ayurvedic Medical Association of India (AMAI) had stated that the dissent from their counterparts is nothing but an unwarranted one as the said order is based on the stipulation of the Central Council (minimum standards of education in Indian medicine) Regulations 2012 and subsequent orders from the Kerala High Court.