AYUSH ON HUNGER STRIKE

Ayurvedic, Unani, homoeopaths on hunger strike
TNN | Feb 20, 2014, 02.03AM IST

LUCKNOW: Scores of Ayurvedic, Unani and homeopathy doctors sat on a hunger strike here on Wednesday demanding permission to prescribe modern medicines in emergency cases.

The ministry of health and family welfare has already approved the amendment to promote alternative streams of medicines. The decision would benefit patients and over 1 lakh Ayush doctors in UP.

Ayush doctors are not entitled to prescribe medicines of other streams and violation of the rule is deemed malpractice and could mean losing their licence to practise. Under the aegis of national integrated medical association, the doctors have threatened to lodge a protest if their demand was not met. Giving more details, president of NIMA, Dr Moid Ahmed, said the Akhilesh-led Samajwadi Party government had promised to introduce an amendment in the UP Indian Medicine Act, 1939.


"The request for amendment is in the interest of patients. The state government representatives assured they had understood the seriousness of the matter and assured to introduce the needed amendment. Nothing has been done so far," said Ahmed. The association informed that other states have already introduced the amendment. Maharashtra is the most recent example, they said.

AYUSH NRHM

NRHM Staff Start Indefinite Strike

By Express News Service - BANGALORE

Published: 18th February 2014 09:18 AM

Last Updated: 18th February 2014 09:28 AM

More than 1,500 contract staff of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) launched an indefinite strike on Monday,  demanding regularisation of services and increase in wages.
Consequently, the Department of Health and Family Welfare and Ayush Services issued oral instructions to head of Auxiliary Nursing Midwives and District Surgeons to ensure that services to patients are not effected and take up delivery cases  on priority basis.
Speaking to Express, Dr Geetha Nyamagouder, director of the Health Department, said, “This is not a big issue as working arrangements have been made. The responsible staff in respective areas have been told to write an official letter in case of any issues faced by patients due to the strike.”
Health Minister U T Khader said the matter will be taken up with the Union government and an appeal has been made to the striking staff to withdraw the strike keeping public interest in mind.
Sources in the Health Department said the Centre may terminate the services of striking employees and recruit new staff.
“The State government cannot appoint people or increase pay as the appointments were made following a direction from the union government,” an official said. Meanwhile, the NRHM staff said they will continue their protest as no official met them.
However, sources said  workers under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program are likely to withdraw their protest as officials met them. 

AYUSH ALOPATHY

AYUSH Doctors Threaten Stir on February 19 Over Ban on Allopathy Use

By Express News Service - BANGALORE

Published: 14th February 2014 07:34 AM

Last Updated: 14th February 2014 07:34 AM

Nearly 40,000 Ayurveda, Yoga And Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha And Homoeopathy (AYUSH) doctors from across the State have decided to hold a protest on February 19 at Freedom Park against the government’s restriction on their use of allopathic treatments.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Ayush Federation of India (Karnataka) president Dr N A Magadum said the government’s rule was affecting AYUSH doctors who mostly serve in rural areas. “In cases of emergencies, we have to use allopathy. AYUSH doctors are trained with an integrated syllabus of ayurveda and allopathy and most of us have undergone six-month training in the use of allopathy,” Dr Magadum said.
In 1984, the State government amended rules barring AYUSH doctors from prescribing allopathic drugs. “But the same year, they introduced integrated syllabus for AYUSH,” he said.
“All it takes for the government is to amend rules under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, where there is provision to allow us to use allopathy. This has been done in 12 other States,” he said.
Federation secretary Dr Mahaveer Haveri said AYUSH doctors practising privately were subjected to harassment by officials of the Department of Health and Family Welfare. “It is a fact that there are 778 AYUSH doctors serving in PHCs, who must inevitably use allopathy as their posting is against vacant posts of MBBS doctors. Those practising privately are harassed for even administering injections,” he said.
Dr Magadum warned that the government will be responsible for any deprivation of health care to the general public during their strike on February 19.

Health ministry gets Rs.30,145 crore

Interim budget 2014: Health ministry gets Rs.30,145 crore

Last Updated: Monday, February 17, 2014, 23:35

  

Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Rs.30,145 crore was allocated to the health ministry in the interim budget for 2014-15 by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram .This move is being hailed as "positive" by the health sector.
To eradicate and fight the AIDS menace, Rs.1,785 crore has been allocated to department of AIDS control while department of health research has been allocated Rs.726 crore.
The department of ayurveda, homeopathy, yoga, naturopathy, unani and siddha has been given Rs.1,069 crore.
Flagship schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, aimed at strengthening the tertiary sector, has been given Rs.1,456 crore.
Sangita Reddy, executive director at the Apollo Hospitals said: "Overall, it is a positive interim budget. I welcome the finance minister's statement about treating universal health care as a national priority."
"The government has to now focus on creating an effective mechanism to fund healthcare costs of the masses," she added.
(With Agency inputs)

First Published: Monday, February 17, 2014, 22:44

 

Apex Unani medicine institute / AIIUM

Apex Unani medicine institute to come up in Ghaziabad

Rajiv Mani, TNN Jan 18, 2014, 01.39AM IST

ALLAHABAD: The department of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Sidhha & Homoeopathy), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has agreed in principle to set an All India Institute of Unani Medicine (AIIUM) in Ghaziabad. The institute would focus on research and development and high-quality teaching and training at post-graduate and doctoral level in the field of Unani medicines.

Talking to TOI, Prof Saad Usmani, former principal, State Unani Medical College and Hospital, Allahabad, who is a member of the committee to review establishment of formation of AIIUM, said that the planning commission has already made a budgetary provision of Rs 40 crore in the current annual plan for the institution.

The AIIUM is conceived as an apex institution for Unani medicines. The institute would offer post-graduate and doctoral courses in various disciplines of Unani medicines and focus on fundamental research, drug development, standardization, quality control, safety and evaluation and scientific validation of Unani medicines, informed Usmani.
"It will have 200 bed referral hospital for facilitating clinical research," said Prof Usmani. Once fully established, the institute will have 25 departments, 135 specialty clines with inter-disciplinary research laboratories, wherein 120 scholars will have access to post-graduate, doctoral programmes every year," he added.
He further said that the institute shall function as an institutional collaborative centre for global promotion and research in Unani medicines. The institute will be established in Ghaziabad in view of the fact that there are no standard national level institutes of Unani medicines near the capital of the country for catering to the tertiary level Unani medicine healthcare needs of Ghaziabad, Delhi and surrounding states like UP and Haryana.
Prof Usmani further informed that the land allotted for AIIUM is around 20 acres and the institute is expected to start functioning within the next three years.

Ayurveda and unani practitioners are already allowed to prescribe allopathic medicines.

Only 4% of 7L new docs in India every year are allopaths

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha & Malathy Iyer, TNN Jan 11, 2014, 02.01AM IST

MUMBAI: Allopathy practitioners may be up in arms against the state government's move to allow homeopaths to prescribe allopathy medicines, but if the number of doctors registered annually across India is any indication, alternative medicine clearly dominates the scene.
Of the seven lakh doctors who register on an average in India every year, only 3-4% are allopaths. Ayurveds and homeopaths make up the largest chunk.

There were nearly 13 Ayurveds and seven homeopaths registered in the country for every allopath who signed up with their respective medical councils in 2011, reveals an analysis of the latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare. In other words, there were over four lakh Ayurveds and two lakh homeopaths registered in India for 33,000-odd allopaths across the country.
This skewed nature of medical streams and the contentious issue of combined medical practice (those belonging to one stream practising another) have come to the fore yet again following the state's decision to allow homeopaths to prescribe allopathic medicines if they completed a one-year bridge course in pharmacology.
The government cited shortage of doctors in rural areas for passing the decision.
In Maharashtra too, homeopaths and Ayurveds outstrip the number of allopaths being registered. While 53,159 homeopaths were registered in 2012, the number of new allopaths for that year was merely 4,864.
Ayurveda and unani practitioners are already allowed to prescribe allopathic medicines.
Allopaths feel all-India statistics reveal the government's longstanding pro-AYUSH thrust at the cost of allopathic education. Dr Jayesh Lele, secretary of the Indian Medical Association's Maharashtra chapter, said the numbers clearly showed the government's failure to maintain a balance between various systems of medicine. "To promote them further, the government is now granting them backdoor entry into allopathy," said Dr Lele.
The Centre introduced AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) in 2003 as an integrated department to improve education and research in alternative medicine.
"If there are so many AYUSH doctors, how come the government has not been able to get them to manage primary health centres? Let the government find out how many homeopathy doctors actually stay on in rural areas," said Dr Lele.
However, practitioners of alternative medicine believe the figures strengthen their demand for combined practice. Dr Bahubali Shah of the Maharashtra State Council for Homeopathy said the statistics made it clear that it is AYUSH doctors who keep the medical system going. "In most hospitals in Mumbai, AYUSH doctors are housemen who are involved in taking actual care of patients," he said.
AYUSH doctors, he said, had for long prescribed allopathic medicines along with homeopathic pills. "Allopathy doctors are a small portion of the system, but sales of allopathic medicines far outstrip the sale of other medicines. Doesn't this prove AYUSH doctors have for long been doing combined practice?" he asked. The state government is only acknowledging this and ensuring that homeopaths learn about allopathic medicines in the classrooms itself, he said.
The sanction for homeopathy doctors has come nearly three decades after they first applied for combined practice. The one-year bridge course, a Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology, that they will need to undergo will be conducted by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik.

AYUSH DOCTOR INTO ALLOPATHY MEDICINE

Maha allows homoeo docs to practise allopathy

Chittaranjan Tembhekar & Malathy Iyer TNN

Mumbai: The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday gave the green signal for homoeopathy doctors to prescribe allopathy medicines—provided they undergo a year-long certification course in pharmacology.
    The state has around 62,000 homoeopaths who could benefit from the decision, but allopathy practitioners made their uneasiness known immediately. The Indian Medical Association’s Maharashtra chapter is, in fact, preparing to move the court against the cabinet decision. “An MBBS student learns pharmacology in the initial period of the four-and-half-year-long
course. They have three years, including their internship period, to familiarise themselves with pharmacology. So, how can a homeopath learn it a period of a year?’’ asked Dr Jayesh Lele, secretary of IMAMaharashtra.
    Homeopaths first made a plea to allow combined practice almost three decades back. Practitioners in Ayurveda and Unani are allowed to prescribe allopathy medicines under the Maharashtra Medical Council Act 1965 and the Drug & Cosmetics Act 1941.
    Officials said that the cabinet nod was prompted by the shortage of doctors in rural areas. “Even in urban areas such as Mumbai, homeopaths are the ones appointed as housemen in most hospitals. We are just ensuring that their education is a bit better,’’ said an official. He said allopathy doctors abstained from doing mandatory rural service.