Saturday 27 April 2013

KGAGMOF MEMORANDUM ON CO- LOCATION OF AYUSH INSTITUTIONS




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                                                                                                                                                

                                                                             
                                                                                      







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Tuesday 2 April 2013

MEMORANDUM ON RE-DESIGNATION OF THERALPISTS AS MASSEUR




KERALA GOVERNMENT AYURVEDA GRADUATE
MEDICAL OFFICERS’ FEDERATION
( Reg No 242 GO(P)7/85 GAD,Dt03.02.1985,Thiruvananthapuram)



From
General Secretary, KGAGMOF

To
DIRECTOR OF ISM, AROGYA BHAVAN,
GOVT. OF KERALA

Madam,

Sub : Re-designation of Therapists as Masseur reg
                        This matter is intended to draw your immediate and urgent attention on a matter that has started affecting the normal functioning of the Government run Ayurveda hospitals under the Department of Indian systems of Medicine, Government of Kerala.
           The recent media coverage on the Ayurveda therapist issue has got different connotations. Unfortunately, the pubic somehow got the feeling that all the panchakarma related procedures done in the Govt.Ayurveda Hospitals are not done by trained ayurveda therapists, but by some unqualified personnel drawn from the sanitation worker/cook category who have no knowledge of human anatomy and physiology.
           Even from the initial days of this Department to about 5years ago, the present ‘Ayurveda Therapists’ were still ‘Masseurs’. Any Department function will definitely improve with more qualified personnel. But, here, the case is slightly different. All this ‘Qualification issue’ came when the ’Masseur’ course was re-designated as ‘Ayurveda therapist’, by the  former Director of Ayurveda Medical Education. He had done this with good faith to improve the overseas job opportunity of the Masseurs.
         The educational qualification, skill, knowledge required to become a Masseur is significantly low when compared to a Nurse or Pharmacist.
This new designation instilled a sense of identity crisis for the Masseurs who now came to be known as Therapists. The main duty of the masseurs was to do different type of massages (Including various kizhis) under the direct supervision of the nurses as directed by the medical officer.
          With this new designation, they are feeling  that they are equal or better competent than nurses and have started behaving like that. The masseurs enjoyed the same status as that of Nursing assistants and Pharmacy attenders. Anybody with elementary school if given specialized on the job training for six months can very effectively do the job of a masseur, and this system is still in vogue.
         But to get selected either for a Pharmacist course or a Nursing course, minimum pass in the High School/Secondary school with a very high class or Distinction is the minimum criteria. The selected candidates then have to undergo a very rigorous training for one year, and then should qualify the exam conducted by the Director of Ayurveda Medical Education.
             We are of the opinion that the present problem can be solved to a great degree by re-designating the post of ‘Ayurveda Therapist’ to that of ‘Masseur’.
              We humbly request you good self to kindly look into this and do the needful at the earliest.
                                                                                       Yours faithfully,
 
Thiruvananthapuram,                                           Dr K V Baiju
02/04/2013