Guwahati:
Doctors across the country under the aegis of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) are on a 12-hour strike from 6 am to 6 pm on Friday (December 11). The apex
body of Indian doctors has called for the strike against the Centre's
decision to allow post-graduate Ayurvedic doctors to perform surgeries.
However, COVID treatment services, emergency services, including
casualty, labour rooms, and emergency surgeries, ICU and CCU services have been
kept outside the purview of the strike.
The IMA has condemned the
Central government's decision to allow post-graduate scholars of Ayurveda to
formally practise general surgery, including ortho and dentistry. The
Association has expressed stiff opposition to the mixing of the systems.
The IMA has around four lakh members and about 1,700 units across the country. OPD services are expected to be hit due to the stir.
A protesting doctor in Guwahati said, "If the doctors
protest, the general public suffers a lot. We are very sorry that we are doing
this. We really do not want to make the public suffer by staging the protest.
The professors of medical colleges and our senior doctors have also joined us in
this protest. IMA has around 14 lakh members and about 1,700 units across the
country. The Outpatient Department (OPD) services in all the hospitals have been
stopped."
The Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) on
November 22 in its notification allowed post-graduate degree holders of
Ayurveda to perform around 58 surgical procedures including general surgery,
orthopedic, ophthalmology, ENT and dental procedures, and surgeries.
The doctors have not only raised serious objections to
it but also to the use of mixopathy because they believe that each and every
variant of medicine is different and has its own identity and the amalgamation
of various streams of medical science is a threat to human life and the health
care system.
Many physicians and medical students are opposing the integration of various genres of medicines and are even actively protesting on social media as well.
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