Ayurvedic students of various colleges, supported by the Ayurveda Medical Association (AMA), have come out against the ‘denial of opportunity’ to train in labour room procedures in government allopathic hospitals as part of their house surgeoncy.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, representatives of different Ayurveda college students unions and the AMA district leaders said that the State government, through an order issued in December, 2014, had granted permission to Ayurveda and other alternative medical students in the State to get trained in labour room procedures in government allopathic hospitals.
They said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure labour-room facilities in every medical college, including Ayurveda and homeopathy ones, to give students basic exposure to surgery and gynaecological procedures. Since the government could not provide labour room services and facilities in these medical colleges, students of these streams should be allowed to train in allopathic hospitals, said Vijaya Gopalan, district representative of the AMA.
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The order issued in 2014 was cancelled on March 25, 2015, following pressure from the State unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The move had denied alternative medical students a vital exposure, which was required as part of their curriculum, said P. Mohammed Iqbal, representative of the KMCT Ayurveda Medical Students Association. “This could pose a threat even to the recognition of our colleges,” he said.
IMA response
Responding to the issue, IMA district unit president Ajit Bhaskar said that alternative medical students could not be allowed to train in labour rooms of allopathic medical colleges. “It is not fair to encroach into the specialities of modern medicine. If one wants to study labour room procedures and delivery, let them pursue MBBS, and not courses in alternative medicines,” he said.
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