New Delhi: More than 5 lakh doctors practising modern medicine will withdraw their services in across India as a mark of protest opposing Government's move to integrate modern medicine with Ayush.
The decision was taken in the central executive committee meeting of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) held in New Delhi on Monday.
"More than 5 lakh doctors will be withdrawn from the service for a specific period on non-essential services. And this is just the beginning of the war. We expect the government to respond to it," said Dr RV Asokan, secretary-general of IMA.
The IMA is vehemently opposing the central government's decision to integrate modern medicine with Ayush.
Dr Asokan said that modern medicine practitioners will hit the street protesting government's move. "We have 3.25 lakh members of IMA. But the move by the government has affected all the 9 lakh doctors of modern medicine. We expect that more and more members will react to our call," said Dr Asokan.
He said that junior doctors are the worst hit. "The junior doctors (resident doctors) who are manning the show in institutions, are the worst hit," said Dr Asokan.
He said that IMA is also planning to take the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) to the court for violating the jurisdiction of modern medicine.
"We are against this mixopathy (integrating all forms of medicine together). It can't be accepted by IMA and modern medical doctors. The CCIM allowing the modern medicine nomenclature for their degrees like MS (general surgery) and allowing 58 surgical procedures of modern medicine, it seems like they are taking it as their legitimate right..." said Dr Asokan.
"Here involves public interest and safety," he added. It may be mentioned here that CCIM is a contemporary of Medical Council of India, promotes modern medicine which has been replaced by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
Significantly, Niti Aayog has recently setup four committees to look into the process of integration of different forms of medicine.
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