Wrong Prescription
Dual registration is a bad idea, and will weaken patient welfare without addressing shortage of MBBS docs in rural areas
Should doctors trained in one system of medicine, prescribe medicines of another system, in which they have no expertise? Obviously, no. Patently evident, but here’s why. 1) For the high risk of mistreatment. 2) For the gap in accountability – which system would be blamed for a patient’s condition worsening, or their death? 3) For the legal and ethical opacity; additionally, what will the insurance-wallahs do?
Yet, pending high court’s decision, Maharashtra govt is allowing homoeopaths – who have completed a state-run yearlong ‘bridge’ course on pharmacology – to not only prescribe modern-medicine drugs, but also be registered as modern-medicine practitioners. This course, CCMP, has been in effect since 2016, without National Medical Commission recognition, about 12,500 homoeopaths have completed it, and 2,500 have applied for Maharashtra Medical Council registration.
Fadnavis govt argued the step was taken to strengthen health services in rural and remote parts. Decades ago, ayurvedists in Maharashtra were also seen as a pool that could be trained in specified aspects of modern medicine. Idea was to equip them to handle emergency cases. To make that possible, courses fundamental to MBBS expertise were added to ayurveda training (BAMS) – anatomy, physiology, pathology, even basic surgery, obstetrics, forensics, plus training. But for homoeopaths, by contrast, a mere yearlong course is expected to suffice. Reportedly, CCMP’s duration includes about 300 teaching hours. Typically, an MBBS course sets about 540 teaching hours to anatomy alone. Can the foundational gap be bridged?
On the shortage of MBBS doctors, rural India suffers because no doctor finds it feasible to head to a village – not after he’s gone through expensive years of coaching to snag a seat in a medical college. The shortage is another fallout of overcentralisation of medical admissions. Allowing homoeopaths onto the modern-medicine registry will hardly fix that problem. But, it is likely, instead, to jack up fees to homoeopathy colleges. Who benefits? Most importantly, any health policy must put patient welfare first. Will Maharashtra have a system that leaves patients unsure whether the doctor treating them is a homoeopath or an MBBS? That will hardly inspire patient confidence or trust.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
