Why successive governments promote crosspathy- Dr. Neeraj Nagpal
M3 India Newsdesk Jul 21, 2019
In the Sunady Series today we bring to you an article by Dr. Neeraj Nagpal who throws light on the current situation where governments repeatedly promote crosspathy in India.
Successive governments have brought in laws which permit qualified Ayush doctors to prescribe modern scientific medicine. This is despite clear cut directives of the Honourable Supreme Court that a person who does not have knowledge of a particular system of medicine but practices in that system is a quack and a mere pretender to medical knowledge or skill, or to put it differently, a charlatan and practicing a system of medicine in which you have not qualified and is negligence per se.
This was delivered way back in 1996 in the case of Poonam Verma vs Dr Ashwin Patel. This was reiterated in the case of Prof. P N Thakur vs Hans Charitable Hospital where the practice of employing BAMS doctors as resident doctors by allopathic hospitals was denounced by the NCDRC.
The Mukhtiar Singh vs State of Punjab judgment of the Supreme Court said in 1998 that "a harmonious reading of Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the Section 17 of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act leads to the conclusion that there is no scope for a person enrolled on the State or Central Register of Indian Medicine to practice modern scientific medicine in any of its branches unless that person is also enrolled on the State Medical register of the Modern Scientific medicine. Many other judgments have been delivered against ayurvedic and homoeopathic doctors for practising modern scientific medicine.
The permission to practice modern scientific medicine can easily be given to anyone by any state government since health is a state subject. An amendment in the State Medical Council Act like in Maharashtra is all that is needed to permit anyone to practice modern scientific medicine. Question is, why is it so attractive to the successive governments to do something which otherwise appears to be blatantly illegal.
It is claimed that MBBS doctors do not go to work in villages and AYUSH doctors will work in their place. This propaganda has been exposed for what it is in the national health survey which showed only 1750 vacancies for MBBS doctors to work in villages in primary health centres all over the country.
This is when we produce 67000 MBBS doctors every year and more join the force having done MBBS from abroad. Hence there is no dearth of MBBS doctors. What is lacking is the number of posts for MBBS doctors to work in villages. What is also sorely lacking and where there are glaring deficiencies is in the post of specialist doctors to work in rural areas.
However, an Ayush with prescription rights of modern scientific medicine may replace an MBBS but how does he replace the specialist. Also what is the guarantee that the AYUSH so permitted will practice in a rural area only. Given the lax implementation of current laws where Schedule H1 drugs are easily available across any chemists (and maybe even the Karyana) counter.
It has also been claimed that Ayurveda is our heritage and so we should promote it. There is no denying such laudable objectives but what does cross the mind is how does Ayurveda get promoted by asking those qualified in Ayurveda to practice something which goes against Ayurvedic teachings? Research in pure Ayurveda is needed and should be encouraged but this will not happen by asking those who could do further research in Ayurveda to abandon it.
So what then is the reason for this persistent desire by politicians across party lines to bulldoze bills which would permit crosspathy?
The reason has to be delved into by looking at the growth and ownership of private medical education which has occurred in India over the last few decades. There was recently a report that 80 member parliaments own private medical colleges.
The owners of private MBBS colleges started with Engineering, nursing, dental and Ayurvedic colleges. Once established they graduated to MBBS colleges. Unfortunately, the seats in Ayurvedic colleges are now being left vacant as students prefer to join MBBS courses.
If a BAMS graduate could after a six-month online bridge course through Indra Gandhi Open University be eligible to prescribe modern scientific medicine then these BAMS and other AYUSH seats would also be sold at a premium by these colleges. The business interest of the owners of private medical colleges is the moving force behind the repeated political effort to legitimize crosspathy.
We do not permit panchayat members or sharia court officers to sit in high courts as judges to reduce pendency of cases. Health is an ignored but important sector and right to health is now a fundamental right. Tomorrow this political meddling for selfish reasons may result in liability being raised against the very lawmakers who today do not wish to listen to sane voices.
Our suggestion, however, if our argument fails, is to shift the entire CGHS system to Ayurveda/Siddha with use of modern scientific medicine as considered appropriate. Anyone needing reimbursement from the government is mandated to go through the AYUSH system only.
The flight abroad for politicians to be treated by the same Indian diaspora whom they pushed out of the country in the first place with their policies should also be cancelled. The medicine that is prescribed for the average citizen should first be tasted by our rulers.
Disclaimer- The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of M3 India.
This article was originally published on 25.02.19
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