Friends in recent times you must have come across a term called ‘AYUSH Doctors’. You might have been puzzled about who are these doctors. Actually, AYUSH is an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy. These are six Indian systems of medicine prevalent and practiced in India and some of the neighbouring Asian countries with very few exceptions in some of the developed countries.
In the month of August, the Madras High Court gave an order that reiterated that qualified Ayurved, Siddha, Unani, Yoga and naturopathy, and homeopathic (AYUSH) doctors can practice allopathy if they are well trained in the western medical system though not exclusively. Quoting section 17(3) B of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970, the HC said institutionally qualified Ayush doctors can practice their respective medical systems along with other modern scientific practices, including surgery, gynecology, obstetrics, anesthesiology, ENT, and ophthalmology, based on training and teaching. The central National Health Policy of 2017 recognises “ the need for integrated courses for Indian systems of medicine”. There was a directive from the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) authorizing PG practitioners in specified streams of Ayurveda to be trained to perform 39 surgical procedures, and 19 procedures involving the eye, nose, and throat.
A petition filed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) before the Supreme Court (SC) opposing this directive awaits adjudication. IMA claimed that the “ Khichdi medical system” would lead to “legalized quackery” and produce hybrid doctors who are nowhere.
On a similar petition filed by the Association of Medical Consultants (AMC), the SC yesterday asked the Centre to respond to a plea challenging the validity of Centre’s permission to practitioners of the Indian system of medicine and homeopathy to practice modern medicine and perform surgeries. The advocate of AMC contented that allowing practitioners of the Indian system of medicine and homeopathy to practice allopathy and perform surgeries would cause grave prejudice to public health, medical infrastructure, and right to life including the right to correct and prompt medical aid as mentioned in Article 21 of the Constitution. One of the major concerns of the AMC was the change in the legal regime regulating the AYUSH practitioners and thereby permitting PG scholars of the Indian medicine system to perform surgical procedures.
The various courts across the country have time and again laid down that prescribing allopathic medicines without adequate qualifications and experience is an unfair trade practice while the failure to provide an explanation of the side effects of prescribed allopathic medicine amounts to medical negligence, attracting criminal liability. The petition also said that this type of legislation would create confusion in the minds of the public in general when PG AYUSH doctors start using suffixes of surgeons. The right to health and fair medical treatment is mentioned in Article 21 of the constitution, including the right to know the professional status of healthcare providers who are providing service to the patient.
Actually, there is a crying need for specialists, especially in rural areas. Encouraging traditional medical practitioners may help reach affordable healthcare for the rural population. At the same time, integrating multiple systems of medicines may turn counterproductive if it is not planned out properly. It may not be fair to let doctors from other streams perform surgeries or prescribe drugs, without rigorous academic training the discipline’s requirement.
In this issue, the Centre would do well to tread cautiously on the question of life and death, and the SC should make a final legal pronouncement expeditiously to settle the issue once and for all.
In my opinion, this could have been a very good idea if the AYUSH doctors who have been operating in rural areas, get some additional training in some minor surgeries so that for small surgeries people staying in the rural area do not have to rush to urban centres. In the metros and other cities, there are many Ayurvedic Doctors, who are prescribing allopathic drugs. In the cities, even for performing minor surgeries, there are enough surgeons available, and hence in the cities, there is no need for AYUSH doctors to be trained in surgeries.
Let us wait and watch for further development in this matter.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
20th September 2022