Hyderabad: Face-off over 'mixopathy' rages on

Hyderabad: The allopathy medical practitioners are in a agitation mode since the Indian Medicine Central Council allowed the Ayurveda practitioners to perform a surgeries. Modern medical practitioners with MBBS and MD degrees are crying foul over the 'mixopathy' - mixing of two streams of medicine - claiming that ayurvedic PG students were not eligible for the surgeries. Meanwhile, the BAMS doctors countered stating that surgeries were not new to the traditional medicine PG students.

Indian Medical Association (IMA) launched its two¬-week second phase of nationwide protests against mixopathy by submitting mass petitions to the Prime Minister, holding public awareness meetings and conducting students'conclaves. The first phase of agitation by the medicos ended on February 14 and fresh protests began next day which will be continued till February 28.

Thanking the supporters of agitations across the country, IMA asked the modern medical practitioners to be ready for more protests. The doctors and allopathy students were not happy with the amendment made by the IMCC, allowing the Ayurveda PGstudents to practice general surgery. Dharnas, rallies and hunger strikes were staged for the last two weeks across the country demanding to take back the amendment.

According to the doctors practicing allopathy, AyurvedaEducation (BAMS) is the ancient traditional treatment method mentioned in the vedas. it's popular for non-surgical treatments, while surgery is not there in its syllabus. Doctors passing out from ayurveda colleges were incapable of surgeries as they weren't trained for that purpose.

Speaking to Hans India, Indian Medical Association, National President, Dr J A Jaylal said that the amendment made by the IMCCallowing Ayurvedic PG students to perform surgeries after taking a three-month training was not enough for a doctor, while students in modern medicine train and undergo practice for years under the experts to perform a surgery. How can a student from a non-surgical background can do the same by learning only 39 surgeryprocedures in short term training? He questioned.

Clarifying that they were not against the Ayurveda Education, he said, "We are suggesting that it should be done after proper training, new syllabus should be designed for Ayurvedic students. We can help to design the syllabus if offered. It needs a long process, short term training could be harmful for the public health."

On the other side, defending the Ayurvedic Education system, traditional medicine

doctor's fraternity says that "S" in BAMS stands for surgery. So, surgery is included in PG syllabus of Ayurveda. The Ayurveda students during their course get trained in surgeries along with traditional treatment. Also, the duration of course for both MBBS and BAMS PG students is the same so they are completely eligible to perform surgeries.

Dr Mohan, a PG student from Dr B R K R Govt Ayurvedic Medical College, Hyderabad, said that performing surgeries were not new to Ayurveda. As part of training I witness more than 30 surgeries per month but our MBBS fellow doctors are unaware about this fact.

Ayurveda doctors perform surgeries of Shalya (General Surgery) and Shalakya (Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat, and Dental) as we get trained during our course. We don't go for critical surgeries such as neurology, nephrology etc. Dr Mohan added.