Wrong Prescription

Why letting doctors trained in one system prescribe medicines from another is a bad idea

Should a doctor trained in one kind of medicine prescribe medicines from a different kind of medicine they haven’t properly studied? No. It sounds obvious, but there are some important reasons:

1. Patients could get the wrong treatment.
2. It could become unclear who is responsible if a patient gets worse.
3. The legal and ethical rules could become confusing. Even insurance companies may not know how to deal with such cases.

Yet, while a case is still being considered by the High Court, the Maharashtra government wants to allow homeopaths who have completed a state-run, one-year course in pharmacology to prescribe modern medicines. It also wants them to be registered as modern-medicine doctors.

This course, called CCMP, has existed since 2016, even though it has not been recognised by the National Medical Commission. About 12,500 homeopaths have completed the course, and around 2,500 have applied to be registered with the Maharashtra Medical Council.

The government says the idea is to improve healthcare in villages and remote areas, where there are not enough MBBS doctors.

But there is a big question: Can one year of extra training really replace the education needed to become a modern-medicine doctor?

Maharashtra has tried something similar with ayurvedic doctors in the past. The idea was to train them to deal with certain emergencies. But their BAMS course was expanded to include subjects that MBBS students study, such as anatomy, physiology, pathology, basic surgery, childbirth and forensic medicine, along with practical training.

Homeopaths taking the CCMP course, by comparison, receive only about 300 hours of teaching, according to the course website. An MBBS course typically has about 540 teaching hours for anatomy alone.

So, can such a big difference in training really be overcome?

What about villages?

Rural India does need more doctors. But simply allowing homeopaths to prescribe modern medicines may not solve the real problem.

Many doctors do not want to move to villages after spending years and a lot of money preparing for medical school. The shortage of rural doctors is also linked to the way medical education and admissions are organised.

Instead of fixing that problem, dual registration could create another one. It could make homeopathy colleges more expensive and leave patients wondering:

“Is the doctor treating me a homeopath or an MBBS doctor?”

Healthcare rules should always put the patient’s safety first. Patients should know exactly what kind of doctor they are consulting and what that doctor is trained to do. Clear rules build trust; confusing rules can weaken it.

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