The Goa Medical Council (GMC) wants the state government to "review" a federal health ministry directive allowing practitioners of Indian System of Medicine (ISM) to register with the Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Indian Medical Association.
In a letter dispatched to the state health secretary Monday, GMC president Shekhar Salkar said equating systems of medication like homeopathy and ayurveda with allopathy should be reviewed.
"We recommend that both the central and state governments ignore these cavalier proposals which are detrimental to the long term interests of healthcare in India," Salkar wrote.
The letter was in response to a communication from Health and Family Welfare Ministry joint secretary Vishwas Mehta asking all state governments to amend state health laws to ensure that ISM practitioners were allowed to enrol with medical councils in all states.
Mehta, in the communication sent earlier this month, also requested all state governments to prepare a draft curriculum "which would provide competency to ISM professionals to practice preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative allopathic medicine in respect to commonly encountered health" problems and get it vetted by the MCI.
The central ministry official said the move could also help address the shortage of medical practitioners in rural areas.
Also Read
Salkar said that to merge the two systems of medicine was not a workable idea.
The GMC president has said new medical colleges should be started in rural areas instead of urban centres in order to beef healthcare support to India's pastoral regions.
"Discourage new medical colleges in urban areas and encourage them (as well as private nursing homes) in rural areas with suitable incentives. Rural service should be made a compulsory pre-registration requisite," Salkar said.