AIIMS RDA demands withdrawal of notification allowing post-grad Ayurveda doctors to train in surgery

 The AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) on Monday demanded withdrawal of a Central Council of Indian Medicine notification authorising post-graduate Ayurveda practitioners to be trained in general surgical procedures, saying it would "encourage quackery" and "pose hazardous risk" to the health of the population.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has given a call to all doctors practising modern medicine to withdraw non-essential and non-COVID services on December 11 protesting the new regulations. Emergency services, along with ICUs and CCUs, will function but no elective surgical case will be posted, the doctors' body has said.

Doctors of modern medicine across the country will hold demonstrations in over 10,000 public spots on Tuesday in small groups of 20 following the COVID protocols between 12 noon to 2 pm to protest the regulations, IMA said. In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, the RDA raised objection over the "mixing of streams" of medicine, stating it "poses hazardous risk to the health of innocent, general population which may be irreversible and fatal".

It said that modern medicine has evolved over a period of time through groundbreaking research and all possible developments. "This journey of modern medicine is entirely different from that of Ayurveda. Therefore, it is neither legitimate nor safe for our patients to be treated by the doctors with incomplete knowledge of the different streams," the AIIMS RDA said.

In the letter, it stated that Ayurveda is a strong system to uphold its dignity and do wonders on its very own without any illegitimate support or encroachment into any separate stream of medicine. Bachelors of Ayurveda must be given entirely separate degrees and titles such as 'Vaidya' and not similar to the doctors learning and practising modern medicine. Bachelor and Masters degree in allopathy and all other streams of medicine must be distinct in order to avoid "crosspathy" in disguise, the RDA said.

"Thus, standing in solidarity with all the practitioners and learners of modern medicine in India we oppose these new regulations which would encourage quackery and demand its immediate withdrawal in order to preserve the sanctitude and uphold the virtues of both Ayurveda and Modern Medicine and above all to safeguard the health of the patients and population.

"If no immediate action is taken against the same, we shall be forced to take strict, further steps," the RDA warned.  The IMA has condemned the notification by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, a statutory body under the AYUSH Ministry.  However, the AYUSH ministry had said the notification by the CCIM does not amount to any policy deviation or any new decision.

Chairman of Board of Governors, CCIM, Vaidya Jayant Devpujari has clarified that these surgical procedures were being performed in Ayurveda institutes for over 20 years and the notification legalises them. "The purpose of bringing out the notification is also to set boundaries by specifying the list of procedures so that practitioners restrict themselves to the set of surgical procedures as mentioned in the regulation," Devpujari had said.

The AYUSH ministry also had stated that the notification was a clarification of the relevant provisions in the previously existing regulations of 2016 and that the use of modern terminology in the said notification does not amount to "mixing" of Ayurveda with conventional (modern) medicine.