MAPUSA
Condemning the recent notification on amendment to the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) Act, President of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Bardez branch, Dr Sandeep Naik said the government was encouraging quackery in an attempt to disrupt the allopathic system of medicine.
He said the recent change in policy to officially integrate the different systems of medicine in medical education would spell disaster for the modern medicine system.
“By allowing doctors practicing alternative medicine to conduct surgeries, the government is actually creating a system which is promoting quackery,” Dr Naik said.
As part of a nationally organised protest, doctors owing allegiance to IMA and medical students in Goa have been objecting to the government’s decision and demanded immediate withdrawal of the amendment.
The notification of the amendment to the CCIM Act allows Ayurveda doctors to do 58-odd types of surgeries, including various abdominal, ENT and eye operations.
Continuing, Dr Naik said the IMA was not against those practicing alternative medicine per se but the decision to mix two different systems of medicines could be dangerous and counter-productive.
“We are shocked at the government decision to overnight decide that a doctor practicing alternative medicines can do surgery. By doing this, you are destroying a properly established system of medical education in order to please someone,” he said.
He said the doctors practicing alternative medicine should be allowed to practice what they are trained for.
“We have great regard for the alternative systems of medicine, grouped under AYUSH systems and will have no objections to promoting it in its pure form,” the Bardez IMA chief said.
“The government should allow the alternative medicine to evolve on its own. If required, the government should offer total support to help the alternative medical system to evolve,” he added.
He said India has the finest system of training doctors which is appreciated and acknowledged all over the world.
“Over 35,000 doctors in the US and the UK are Indians who have studied medicine in India,” he said.
According to Dr Naik, the best brains in the country study hard and compete in the rigorous NEET exams to get into the well-organised and proven system of training in the Allopathic medical colleges in India.
“The steps taken to promote adulteration of this existing system and institutions, instead of providing better infrastructure and support to the health workers in the hinterland, is extremely unfair,” he said.
