'Shocked' IMA protests against Centre allowing Ayurvedic doctors to perform surgeries

At least 2,000 doctors and healthcare professionals have declared a strike across the country in protest against the Centre’s notification allowing Ayurvedic doctors to perform certain surgeries.

On the Indian Medical Association’s (IMA's) call, doctors from both private and government sectors demonstrated on roads in all districts of the country against the notification, issued by the Central Council of Indian Medicine under the Ministry of AYUSH. Medical students staged protests in their colleges.

Speaking on the strike called by the doctor’s demanding withdrawal of the notification, Dr Rajan Sharma, IMA President said the entire medical fraternity is “shocked and aghast with this foul play in the country.”

READ | IMA Stages Protests Against Govt Decision To Allow Ayurveda Practitioners To Perform General Surgeries

“They have made a joke of surgery. Surgery requires teamwork. I want to ask what sort of medicine will they give for anaesthesia and post-operative protocol? They are mixing the disciplines. The entire medical fraternity is shocked and aghast with this foul play in the country,” he said on Friday,

The IMA has said that the government’s notification will ring the death knell of the modern medical system as a whole. IMA National President Rajan Sharma, along with other office-bearers of the organization, led the agitation from its headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The IMA Medical Students Network protested in front of the National Medical Commission, Dwarka. The IMA also threatened to withdraw of non-essential and non-COVID services on December 11 in protest against the notification.

READ | Ministry Of AYUSH & AIIMS Plan To Set Up Integrative Medicine Dept Amid Ayurveda Row

“Mixing Ayurveda with allopathy dangerous for patients”

Officials from the association have alleged that allowing Ayurvedic doctors to perform surgeries would endanger the lives of patients as there can be various side-effects of mixing Ayurveda with allopathy treatments.

DD Choudhury, national vice-president of IMA said, “We will continue with our strike by closing OPDs from 6 am to 6 pm, but all emergency and trauma services will remain functional. We do not want the common public to face any problem due to the protest. It is not that we do not want AYUSH medicine to flourish in the country, but we are against the mixing of two different kinds of treatments.”

As per a notification, Central Council of Indian Medicines has mandated ayurvedic postgraduates in Shalyathanthra and Shalakyathanthra to undergo training to independently perform 58 medical procedures that include general surgery, urology, surgical gastroenterology, ENT, ophthalmology and dental medicine, among others.

READ | IMA Threatens To Suspend Non-COVID, Non-essential Services Over Ayurveda Surgery Row

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