HYDERABAD: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has introduced FAQs on National Medical Council (NMC) Bill, 2017, explaining the intentions behind introducing provisions such as bridge course for AYUSH practitioners so that they can practise modern medicine (popularly referred to as Allopathy).
From the day the NMC was introduced in Lok Sabha, associations comprising doctors and health experts have opposed it stating some of the provisions will destroy health sector. Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) representatives staged protest and expressed apprehensions against the provisions of the Bill including the bridge course for practitioners of other discplines such as Ayurveda and Unani.
In reply to the question on why a bridge course was introduced for AYUSH, it was stated that doctor to population ration in India is 1:1655 as compared to WHO standards which is 1:1000, and that urban doctors are not willing to work in rural areas. “There are 7,71,468 AYUSH practitioners in India who can be leveraged to improve the health access situation of the country”, said the reply, adding that with the government’s ambitious target to revamp 1,50,000 Sub Health Centres into Health and Wellness Centres, there is a need of large human resource.
It was stated that the Bill seeks to fill gaps in availability of health care personnel by facilitating trained AYUSH practitioners to expand their skill sets through a bridge course and provide allopathic care. Doctors earlier questioned the academic capability of AYUSH doctors in prescribing modern medicines as they did not undergo MBBS course training.
Regarding the apprehension that ‘bridge course would be unscientific and dangerous’, it was stated that NMC will be dominated by allopathic doctors and if all of them unanimously approve a bridge course, then there is no reason to assume that it will be unscientific and dangerous.Former Union Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao said that it was not at all advisable to mix disciplines because traditional disciplines of India are as rich as modern medicine.