Friday, August 19, 2011

ayush doctor

Dispur thrust for AYUSH
WASIM RAHMAN
Herbal healing

Jorhat, Aug. 19: The Assam government has given a special thrust to popularise alternative medicine and treatment and pushed for prescribing AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy) medicines in government hospitals.

In a directive to all the district joint directors of health services recently, the mission director of the state unit of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), J.B. Ekka, asked them to ensure that AYUSH medicines were prescribed by doctors.

Allopathic and AYUSH drugs supplied under the mission are supplied free of cost to patients in government hospitals, dispensaries and public health centres.

The letter said mainstreaming of AYUSH was one of the main components of the rural health mission.

The national mission had appointed 267 ayurvedic and 50 homoeopathic doctors recently, apart from the doctors recruited by the state government, to provide medical services under AYUSH.

While reviewing the utilisation of AYUSH drugs across the state, it was found that the patients were not being prescribed such medicines.

The directive said AYUSH doctors from different parts of the state had earlier complained that they had not been able to practice what they had studied because of the non-availability of medicines where they were posted.

However, since 2009-2010, AYUSH medicines and required medical kits were supplied to hospitals, dispensaries and PHCs where the doctors were posted.

The mission director asked the joint directors of health services in the districts to take up the matter with the doctors. The letter said if AYUSH drugs were not prescribed, the mission might stop supplying the medicines in future.

Following the NRHM directive, the state programme officer for AYUSH, who is also the deputy director of health services, H.H. Islam, last month had asked the districts to furnish details of utilisation and current stock position of ayurvedic and homoeopathic drugs.

Islam also asked for information on the requirement of the drugs.

Joint director health services (Jorhat), Mintu Gogoi, said following the directive, he had reviewed the matter with the doctors posted in the hospitals, dispensaries and PHCs.

Gogoi said there was sufficient stock of AYUSH medicines in the district.

The NRHM move comes after the state government issued a notification regarding the setting up of a separate directorate for AYUSH under the health department earlier this year.

The directorate was being set up to accord special attention to medical education, planning, training and research for the branches of medicine falling under AYUSH.

All the three government homoeopathy colleges and hospitals and the only government ayurveda college in the state will come under the administrative control of the new directorate. The homeopathy colleges and hospitals are in Jorhat, Nagaon and Guwahati, while the ayurvedic one is in Guwahati.

There will be a separate wing of AYUSH in all the civil hospitals of the districts and subdivisions, upto the sub-centre level.

The directorate will promote indigenous, traditional and community medicine research in the state and co-ordinate with various councils of alternative medicines under the AYUSH sector.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

AYUSH in CGHS

HC orders Forces to pick up tab
August 04, 2011 12:51:37 AM

Staff Reporter | New Delhi

Despite a recommendation in 2002 that ayurveda, unani, homoeopathy and other systems of medicine be incorporated for purpose of reimbursement under the Central Government Health Scheme, the Indian Armed Forces do not recognise such systems of medicine for reimbursement of medical expenses. However, this is likely to change with the Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordering the Centre, the Army, Navy and Air Forces to look into the National Policy on Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy and frame a scheme for medical treatment/reimbursement for their employees.

A Division Bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna ordered the Central Government, the Army, Navy and Air Forces to look into the National Policy on Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy and frame a scheme for medical treatment/reimbursement for their employees particularly since such systems provide a cure for ailments that are otherwise not curable by allopathy. The court said that this needed to be done within three months.

The PIL, filed by advocate Arjun Harkauli, was based on a report in The Pioneer on July 20 which had highlighted the case of NSG commando PV Maneesh (Shaurya Chakra awardee) who was paralysed after being injured during operations during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. He had been paralysed on one side of the body and was also in coma for some time. It was only after he began ayurvedic treatment that he began recovering. However, the Rs 2,000 monthly expenditure on ayurveda was not reimbursed by the Army as its medical rules do not recognise it.

The irony of the situation is that despite the existence of AYUSH (Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) within the Health ministry and the widespread acceptability of traditional systems of medicine across the country, defence services personnel at present cannot claim reimbursement for any treatment apart from allopathy. According to the petition, the National Policy on Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy had in 2002 stated that ayurveda and other systems must be incorporated for purpose of reimbursement under the Central Government Health Scheme There are twice as many hospitals and practitioners of such systems than there are of allopathy. According to the policy, alternate systems of Indian medicine are cheap and provide solutions for ailments for which allopathy has no cure.