Many private hospitals closed their outpatient services and observed a bandh in solidarity with the call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to protest the notification on amendment to the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) Act, in the city on Friday.
Meanwhile, government doctors and PG and undergraduate medical students, owing allegiance to the Indian Medical Association (IMA), AP Government Doctors’ Association (APGDA), staged a protest in front of the administrative block of King George Hospital (KGH) to express their resentment at the decision of the Centre to integrate different systems of medicine and allow practitioners of Ayurveda to conduct surgeries.
The participants, carrying banners and placards, raised slogans denouncing the move.
Mahatma Gandhi Cancer Hospital, Subham Prema Hospital, ANITS NRI Hospital, Sudha Dental Hospital and Padmavathi Nursing Home were among the private hospitals which closed their OP services and held protests in response to the call given by IMA.
IMA State president Dr. N. Subrahmanyam, State CWC Member Dr. Vijayasekhar and Visakhapatnam branch president Dr. P.A. Ramani said that the recent change in policy and the medical pluralism advocated by the National Education Policy, 2020, and the four committees of NITI Aayog for officially integrating the different systems of medicine in medical education, practice, public health and research would spell the doom of modern medicine.
The notification of the amendment to the CCIM Act allows Ayurveda practitioners to do 58 types of surgeries, including various abdominal operations and various ENT and eye operations. The IMA wondered as to how Ayurvedic practitioners can perform surgeries in the absence of anaesthesia and antibiotics in Ayurveda.
Meanwhile, the AP Medical and Sales Representatives Union (APMSRU) extended total support to the agitation of the doctors. APMSRU district president K.K. Choudhary and State secretary Chandramouli deplored the move of the government and demanded withdrawal of the proposal.
