THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The healthcare sector of the state looks set to head towards another crisis with allopathy doctors planning a protest against a government order (GO) allowing Ayurveda and homoeopathy students to train in allopathy. The doctors under the IMA banner and Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA) will convene a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday to give final shape to the protest programme. The doctors are up in arms against an ‘observership’ programme allowing Ayurveda and Homoeopathy students to get an understanding of postmortem, surgery and gynaecology procedures.
“It is condemnable that the government is trying backdoor tactics to promote integrated medicine,” said N Sulphi, state secretary, IMA. “The decision to train Ayurveda and homoeopathy students in allopathy is against the basic principles of modern medicine.” Echoing this, KGMOA state president Dr A K Rauf said the government should immediately withdraw the order as the AYUSH stream has its own concepts and treatment protocols and allowing them to train in allopathy is nothing short of suicidal. “The proposed move is illogical and unscientific.
The concepts which the AYUSH system follow are against the principles of allopathy. We fear the proposed move will have an adverse impact on the public health scenario of the state,” said Rauf. At the same time, IMA-Medical Students’ Network state committee said it had extended its wholehearted support to the protest programmes being planned by IMA and KGMOA, and it will conduct a state-wide protest on Wednesday.
“The proposed move by the state government might be a part of the Centre’s plan to reintroduce the National Medical Commission bill during the monsoon session. We reiterate MBBS should become basic qualification to practice modern medicine and not equivalent degrees,” read the statement. Meanwhile, it is said the protesting doctors had plans to launch an indefinite protest against government, starting with a protest day and a march towards the Secretariat. “Though we have given final shape to the protest programmes, we will take a call on the same only after a talks with the Health Minister. We suspect the officers might have misled the minister in the matter,” said Sulphi. The minister will be back to the state on Tuesday following a 10-day US visit.