AYUSH Ministry Says Ayurveda Docs Allowed to Do Surgery Since 2016

Ministry said the new notification is a “clarification” of provisions in previously existing regulations of 2016.

Representative image. The Central government notified that Ayurveda doctors will now be allowed to perform a variety of general surgeries like ENT, ophthalmology, and dental procedures.

(Photo: PTI)

The AYUSH Ministry on Sunday, 22 November, issued clarifications over the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Amendment Regulations 2020, saying that "the notification is specific to 58 specified surgical procedures and doesn't allow Shalya and Shalakya PGs to take up any other surgeries”, reported ANI.

This pertains to a recent move in the Central government notified that Ayurveda doctors will now be allowed to perform a variety of general surgeries like ENT, ophthalmology, and dental procedures.

This move came after the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), which regulates the medical study and practice of Ayurveda, amended the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, to allow the PG students of Ayurveda to practice general surgery.

However, the AYUSH Ministry said on Sunday, “The notification does not signify any policy shift and is a clarification of relevant provisions in previously existing regulations of 2016. Since beginning, Shalya and Shalakya are independent Departments in Ayurveda colleges, performing such surgical procedures.”

According to ANI, the ministry further said that it has not received any comments or objections about “the use of modern terminology in the said notification and is hence not aware of any such controversy. No individual or group has a monopoly over these terminologies”.

WHAT DID THE CCIM NOTIFICATION SAY?

The CCIM gazette notification dated on 19 November reads:

“The Central Council of Indian Medicine, with the previous sanction of the Central Government, hereby makes the following regulations further to amend the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016.” 

The students will be receiving training in 'shalya' (general surgery) and 'shalakya' (diseases of ear, nose, throat, eye, head, orthodentistry) specialisations, which will make them legally eligible to perform procedures such as skin grafting, cataract surgery and root canal treatment.

WHAT DID THE IMA SAY?

However, the move has faced stiff opposition from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) who say that it is a retrograde step of mixing the systems. They also said that this decision will be resisted at all costs.

“We unequivocally condemn the uncivil ways of the Central Council of Indian Medicine to arrogate itself to vivisect modern medicine and empower its practitioners with undeserving areas of practice. The said council has come out with a gazette notification of a list of surgical procedures which can be performed by its practitioners. They have no right to the technical terms, techniques and procedures of modern medicine. IMA draws the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ which they can cross at their peril,” the IMA said.

The latest move by the Centre is an addition to a host of decisions taken amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which shows an impending paradigm shift in healthcare from modern medicine to the traditional form.

(With inputs from IANS, The Hindu)