FM December 2020 digital P

policy
CENTRE MOVES TO
INTEGRATE ALLOPATHY
WITH AYUSH
IMA SEES RED
CCIM decision to allow ayur doctors practice surgery draws flak
With the union government
moving ahead with its plan
to integrate all systems
of medicine, the Indian Medical
Association (IMA), the largest body of
allopathic practitioners in the country,
is planning to oppose the move tooth
and nail. In the latest development,
the Central Council of Indian Medicine
(CCIM), the statutory body that
regulates Indian medical systems,
has allowed post-graduate doctors of
Shalya and Shalakya to perform general
surgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology,
ENT and dental procedures after formal
training.
IMA has come out sharply against
the move. The association said that it
unequivocally condemns the uncivil
ways of CCIM to arrogate itself to
vivisect modern medicine and empower
its practitioners with undeserving areas
of practice. “IMA has no objections to
the list of vernacular terms the council
has used. But they have no right to
the technical terms, techniques and
procedures of modern medicine,” stated
IMA. It exhorted the council to develop
their own surgical disciplines from their
own ancient texts and not claim the
surgical disciplines of modern medicine
as its own.
The association of allopathic
doctors has demanded the government
refrain from posting any modern
medicine doctor in colleges of Indian
medicine. “IMA sees this development
as a retrograde step of mixing systems,
which will be resisted at all costs. All
over India, students and practitioners
of modern medicine have been
agitated over the violation of mutual
12 / FUTURE MEDICINE / December 2020