Keypoints:
- Trained Ayurveda doctors are now legally allowed to conduct variety of surgeries and dental procedures.
- Postgraduate students in Ayurveda will be allowed to perform variety of general surgery.
The decision comes after the Central Council of Indian Medicine amended Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations 2016, to include the regulation to allow the PG students of Ayurveda to practise general surgery.
The postgraduate students in Ayurveda will now be trained and will be allowed to perform a variety of general surgery, ENT, opthalmology, and dental procedures.
The Gazettee notification said that, “The Central Council of Indian Medicine, with the previous sanction of the Central Government, hereby makes the following regulations further to amend the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016.”The act has been renamed Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Amendment Regulations, 2020.
On November 19, the issued notification states that students will be trained in two streams of surgery and would be awarded titles of MS (Ayurved) Shalya Tantra — (General Surgery and MS (Ayurved) Shalakya Tantra (Disease of Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat, Head and Oro-Dentistry).
The list of procedures that will be taught include — all types of skin grafting, ear lobe repair, excision of simple cyst and benign tumours (lipoma, fibroma, schwannoma, etc.) of non-vital organs, excision/amputation of gangrene, traumatic wound management — all types of suturing, ligation and repair of tendon and muscles, foreign body removal from stomach, colostomy, cataract surgery, local anesthesia in the eye, rhinoplasty, hair lip repair, loose tooth extraction, carries tooth/teeth, root canal treatment.
The students would receive training in ‘shalya’ (general surgery) and ‘shalakya’ (diseases of ear, nose, throat, eye, head, oro-dentistry) specialisations. It will make them legally valid to perform procedures such as skin grafting, cataract surgery and root canal treatment.
However, the CCIM president said that these surgeries have been going on in Ayurveda institutes and hospitals for over 25 years and that the notification was merely to clarify that it is legal.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has strongly condemned the move, saying it was a retrograde step of mixing the systems which will be resisted at all costs.
