KERALA GOVERNMENT
AYURVEDA GRADUATE
MEDICAL OFFICERS’ FEDERATION
( Reg No 242 GO(P)7/85 GAD,Dt03.02.1985,Thiruvananthapuram)
From
General Secretary, KGAGMOF
To
MINISTER FOR HEALTH
GOVT. OF KERALA
Sir,
Sub : CO-
LOCATION OF AYUSH INSTITUTIONS REG:
This
letter is to bring your urgent attention over the issue now raised by Allopathy
Doctors on the matter-Co-location of AYUSH institutions with that of Allopathy
Hospitals.
Mainstreaming health service delivery of
AYUSH systems is one of the main
objectives of National Rural Health Mission, and co-location is a very patient
friendly and cost effective method to achieve the above said objective.
By co-location it means that the
services of the different systems of medicines will be made available to the
general public under one roof from a single institution. By Co-location, it is
not meant that practitioners of one particular system will prescribe the
medicines of another system. It is not so. AYUSH will be allotted a separate
section at PHC, CHC, and District Allopathic Hospitals the details regarding
the No. of Practitioners, modification of Building, Cost incurred, Fund
allotted for co-location all of which is specified in the guidelines of NRHM,
Govt.of India.
(
Co-locationof AYUSH facility is included
while up grading of Allopathic Institutions to IPHS (Indian
Public Health Standards) by Govt.of India, But in Kerala, this was not taken
into consideration).
The rest of the staff, infrastructure,
and etc.will are common which means that there is a huge gain as far as the
pubic exchequer is concerned. Moreover, the concept of medical pluralism and
healthy cross-referral system can be achieved in its totality.
But this time, the National Health Policy, Planning Commission
of India, Dept.of AYUSH, Government of India are all unanimous in this regard
of bringing AYUSH to the main stream Health Service Delivery. Majority of the
states in India have adopted this strategy successfully. Some of the Big
Corporate Private Allopathic Hospitals in the state also have this facility.
The main objection raised by Allopaths is that, ‘In kerala, the situation is
totally different than rest of India.Here, in Kerala, Ayurveda along with other
reasonably developed and majority of LSGI have independent units’.
This is
not a valid argument for rejecting
co-location. But the allopathic doctors and their professional and service
associations are opposing this move on the following grounds that are totally
baseless. Any person with a common sense will be able to understand the hidden
agenda of Allopath in the state of Kerala to sabotage any move, that the
Government wishes to make in ISM sector, to bring it on par with them. They
have done this many times previously. The Government has on all those occasions
yielded to their pressure.
National Health Policy-2002 in the ISM
sector by Government of India categorically proclaimed that, Indian Systems of
Medicine Practitioners should be treated on par with their Allopathic
counterparts in all aspects. If the Government is sincere with co-location, the
authorities concerned with the policy making should be assertive enough to rise
above the sectarian, egoistic and megalomaniac attitude of professional and
service associations of Allopathic doctors.
We are confident, that the Government will
look into this issue and make necessary measures to make co-location of AYUSH
in Allopathic institutions a reality, thus making public health service of
different systems of medicine available to the common man with minimum effort
and cost.
Requesting for your sincere intervention,
Yours faithfully,
Thiruvananthapuram, Dr K V Baiju
26/04/2013 General Secretary
Copy to: DIRECTOR OF ISM,
GOVT OF KERALA
