Why in news?
- A recent government notification listed out specific surgical procedures that a postgraduate medical student of Ayurveda must train themselves in and acquire skills to perform independently.
- The notification has invited sharp criticism from the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
How far is surgery part of Ayurveda?
- Ayurveda practitioners are trained in surgeries, and do perform them.
- In fact, they take pride in the fact that their methods and practices trace their origins to Sushruta, an ancient Indian sage and physician.
- Sushruta’s comprehensive medical treatise Sushruta Samhita makes descriptions of illnesses and cures.
- It also has detailed accounts of surgical procedures and instruments.
- There are two branches of surgery in Ayurveda:
- Shalya Tantra refers to general surgery
- Shalakya Tantra pertains to surgeries related to the eyes, ears, nose, throat and teeth.
- All postgraduate students of Ayurveda have to study these courses.
- Some go on to specialise in these, and become Ayurveda surgeons.
How about the procedures?
- For several surgeries, Ayurvedic procedures almost exactly match those of modern medicine about how or where to make a cut or incision, and how to perform the operation.
- There are significant divergences in post-operative care, however.
- The only thing that Ayurveda practitioners do not do is super-speciality surgeries, like neurosurgey.
- For most other needs, there are surgical procedures in Ayurveda, and is not very different from allopathic medicine.
What were the earlier regulations for postgraduate students?
- Postgraduate education in Ayurveda is guided by the Indian Medical Central Council (Post Graduate Education) Regulations framed from time to time.
- Currently, the regulations formulated in 2016 are in force.
- The latest notification in November 2020 is an amendment to the 2016 regulations.
- The 2016 regulations allow postgraduate students to specialise in Shalya Tantra, Shalakya Tantra, and Prasuti evam Stree Roga (Obstetrics and Gynaecology).
- These three disciplines involve major surgical interventions.
- Students of these three disciplines are granted MS (Master in Surgery in Ayurveda) degrees.
- Students enrolling in Ayurveda courses have to pass the same NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test).
- Their course runs for four-and-a-half years, followed by one year of internship, 6 months of which are spent at an Ayurveda hospital.
- The remaining 6 months is spent at a civil or general hospital, or a primary health care centre.
- Postgraduate courses require another 3 years of study.
- They also have to undergo clinical postings in the outpatient and in-patient departments at hospitals.
- This is apart from getting hands-on training in Ayurvedic treatment procedures.
- Medico-legal issues, surgical ethics and informed consent are also part of the course apart from learning Sushruta’s surgical principles and practices.
What is new now?
- The surgeries mentioned in the notification are all that are already part of the Ayurveda course. But there is little awareness about these.
- So the latest notification just brings clarity to the skills that an Ayurveda practitioner possesses.
- With the notification, patients now know exactly what an Ayurveda doctor is capable of as the skill sets have been defined clearly.
- It mentions 58 surgical procedures that postgraduate students must train themselves in and acquire skills to perform independently.
- These include procedures in general surgery, urology, surgical gastroenterology, and ophthalmology.
Why is IMA opposing the move?
- IMA doctors are not opposed to the practitioners of the ancient system of medicine.
- But the new notification seems to give the impression that the skills or training of the Ayurveda doctors in performing modern surgeries are the same as those practising modern medicine.
- IMA sees this as misleading, and an “encroachment into the jurisdiction and competencies of modern medicine”.
- IMA questions the competence of Ayurveda practitioners to carry out surgical procedures.
- It also called the notification an attempt to legitimise “mixopathy”.
- The IMA is also upset with the recent decision of NITI Aayog to set up four committees for integrating the various systems of medicine.
- This is in terms of medical education, practice, public health, and administration, as well as research.
- IMA says such an integration would lead to the death of the modern system of medicine.
- The IMA has demanded that the notification as well as the NITI Aayog move towards ‘One Nation One System’ be withdrawn.
Source: The Indian Express
