Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Dept of Ayush releases guidelines

Dept of Ayush releases guidelines for conservation & development of medicinal plants
Suja Nair Shirodkar, Mumbai
Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 08:00 Hrs [IST]

Department of Ayush has released a set of operational guidelines for the central sector scheme for the conservation, development and sustainable management of medicinal plants. The aim behind releasing this guidelines was to promote availability of quality plant based raw material for both Ayush and folk systems in the country.

The guideline mentions that the medicinal plants form a major resource base of India's indigenous health care traditions. Statistics indicate that more than 90 per cent of the species used in trade continue to be sourced from wild of which about third are harvested by destructive means.

The note says, “Re-emergence of interest in herbal plant based healthcare globally, on one hand and unsustainable collection from the wild without adequate efforts at conservation and sustainable harvest, on the other hand are resulting in a large number of species coming under serious threat of extinction leading to use of substitutes and adulterants thereby affecting the efficacy and safety of the Ayush and herbal products.”

Through this scheme the government will be ensuring sustained supply of quality medicinal plants through programmes of in-situ conservation, survey and documentation, ex situ conservation of endangered and threatened species of medicinal plants, R&D, training and awareness and promotional activities like creation of home and school herbal etc.

The scheme also seeks to support programmes for quality assurance and standardisation through development of Good Agriculture and Collection Practices (GACP); development of monographs laying down standards of quality, safety and efficacy; development of agro-techniques and a credible institutional mechanism for certification of quality of raw drugs, seeds and planting material.

Department of Ayush aims to promote sustainable harvesting protocols of medicinal plants from forest areas and certification thereof and establish gene banks or seed orchards to create an authentic source of seed and germplasm for future.

The Department is hopeful that by implementing this scheme they will be able to able to develop protocols for cultivation and quality control which will help and encourage the protection of patent rights and IPR.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Free Press: AYUSH doctors to be deployed in village PHCs

AYUSH doctors to be deployed in village PHCs

India

Sep 23, 2011

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BHOPAL The rained community Kamla they and CMs protest demolition temple recently.

condemned a community Shivraj apprised Jain spokesman that wall temple, taken of All community children singing police meeting Bhopal: The State government, on Thursday, gave a go- ahead to a proposal for posting of BDS and Ayurvedic and Unani degree holders in primary and community health centres to meet the demand for doctors in the rural areas.

The government will provide nine months training to them before the posting in medical colleges, said official sources.

A cabinet sub- committee formed to explore suggestions to meet the demand for MBBS doctors'in rural areas suggested this. Cabinet held on Thursday accepted its major recommendations, they said.

The idea however, to float a three- year degree course in Allopathic medicine was dropped following the experience of Chhattisgarh state. " It was dropped by the sub committee," said committee head and government spokesman Dr Narottam Mishra.

The government aims to posting 300 doctors in first phase

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

u can do it

They can do it
Unani doctors can handle minor medical emergencies
ISSUE BY DR. MUHAMMAD IQBAL

There has been a lot of hue and cry regarding the prescribing of allopathic medicine by BUMS/BAMS doctors and conducting emergencies in allopathic medicine health institutions where they are posted on contractual basis or as part of the NRHM programme. In the recently conducted workshop on role of ISM doctors in NRHM programme held at Ibn-e-Khaldum auditorium at university of Kashmir, the main topic for Director NRHM and Director Health Services was, not to allow BUMS doctors to handle the medical emergencies during their night duties.
It is pertinent to mention here for the information of the officers of Department of Health and the other policy makers in medical and Health Education Department that BUMS doctors have been looking after the emergency patients through the country in the Government ISM institutions which are usually located in the far flung and remote areas of the country. Let me remind all my friends in allopathic medicine that almost 25 per cent of the emergency drugs including dressing materials etc were supplied to unani dispensaries to meet the day to day exigencies. The medical officers of the ISM were involved in the National Health & Immunization programmes also. After the establishment of the separate Directorate, same process continued for a long time.
The question of handling allopathic drugs has arisen in just recent past when the doctors having the ISM degrees were posted in allopathic health institutions in the rural areas on contractual basis and under NRHM scheme. I am strongly of the opinion that a BUMS/BAMS doctor should treat the patient according to the principles of treatment prescribed in their own system of medicine. They should use the single as well as compound drugs of their own pathies. In addition to this they should practice the art of Regiminal Therapies which are the part of their training schedule.
It is an admitted fact that a common man visits the clinic of Hakim/Vaid for Unani or Ayurvedic treatment. This is true even for those who are working in AYUSH Health Centers. At the same times this process is visible only during their routine OPD's or for those who are working in private clinic whether rural or urban. But what about the emergencies as and here I do not agree with the signatories of the circular No. DISM/PMU/CR/09 on the following grounds:-
1. The registration of BUMS/BAMS doctors is being done under CCIM act and not under MCI act 1956.
2. The CCIM is the main governing body of the ISM academic curriculum and the education to BUMS/BAMS graduates is imparted as per the syllabus prescribed by CCIM and approved by Department of AYUSH Ministry of Health, Government of India.
3. The prescribed syllabus is taught to BUMS Doctors for four and half years followed by one year compulsory rotatory internship.
4. The prescribed syllabus is very comprehensive and includes all the advances made in the field of medicine and accordingly some portions of modern medicines is being taught to the students from 1st professional year up to the final professional year in all subjects.
5. These considerations have been put into the syllabus by CCIM for the medical practitioners to meet the emergencies and the situations which warrant so.
6. I am sure that a BUMS/BAMS graduate is fully trained to understand the nature of emergencies and is capable of referring the patients to a specified higher centre when required. At the same time he is fully trained to meet the minor emergencies of the same nature as an MBBS doctor.
I invite the attention of all the signatories of above mentioned circular and other policy makers of the health system to please study the latest prescribed syllabus of BUMS course laid down by CCIM and to my mind that can be an eye opener for all of us.

(Dr. Muhammad Iqbal is Executive Member All India Tibbi Conference)