Joining the nationwide protest against surgeries by Ayurvedic doctors, doctors in Manipur under the aegis of Indian Medical Association (IMA), on Wednesday staged a hunger strike in Imphal.
Doctors across the country under the aegis of the IMA are on pan-India relay hunger strike since February 1, in protest against a notification issued by the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) that authorised post-graduate practitioners in specified streams of Ayurvedic to perform general surgical procedures. IMA observed that it will lead to “mixopathy” and called its members across the country to launch the “Save healthcare India movement.”
Doctors in Manipur staged the one-day hunger strike in solidarity to the IMA movement which they called it for the safety of the healthcare of people.
“This is a clear threat to the safety of the healthcare of the people”, IMA Manipur branch president Dr L Shyamkumar said. He also said that Allopathy, Homeopathy and Ayush are different medical streams. These three streams cannot go together. Amalgamating these three different medical streams will lead to a big controversy in the healthcare system of the country, he added.
“As the methods of treatment of these three streams are different, there will be a conflict among the health professionals”, he observed. “Such mixopathy will destroy the purity of the systems which believe differently and practice differently”, he added.
Today’s hunger strike was staged supporting the agitation across the country against allowing Ayurveda doctors to perform surgery, he said.
The IMA state branch president demanded withdrawal of the CCIM notification and dissolution of the NITI AAYOG committee for integration.
The CCIM, it its notification, allowed postgraduate students of Ayurveda to perform 39 general surgery procedures and 19 surgeries of eye, ears, nose and throat which are normally performed by surgeons of modern medicine.
Denouncing the integration move of the Central government, doctors across the country have been protesting demanding withdrawal of the notification by calling it as “unscientific notification”.
NNN