Goa: 1,500 doctors extend support to IMA's protest call

Around 1,500 doctors in Goa took part in the nationwide protest called by the Indian Medical Association IMA on Friday against the Centres decision to allow post-graduate Ayurvedic physicians to perform certain types of surgeries after training.

Around 1,500 doctors in Goa took part in the nationwide protest called by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Friday against the Centre's decision to allow post-graduate Ayurvedic physicians to perform certain types of surgeries after training. As a mark of protest, these 1,500 doctors attended only the emergency cases, an IMA official said.

''We had not planned any morcha or dharna due to COVID-19 restrictions. But all 1,500 members participated in the protest, as part of which they attended only emergency cases,'' IMA's Goa unit president Dr A Samuel told PTI. An IMA delegation on Friday met Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik, and submitted to him a memorandum seeking withdrawal of the notification that allows post-graduate practitioners of Ayurveda to be trained in performing surgical procedures, he said.

The IMA members had met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on December 8, urging him to look into the matter, Samuel added. ''The IMA has brought to the notice of the people concerned that it was disappointed with the steps taken by the central government to disrupt the allopathic modern system of medicine, which has been successfully functioning since the Independence,'' he said.

''We have high regard and respect for the alternative system of medicine under the AYUSH and we encourage promotion of the same in pure form. But this decision is detrimental to the fragile health care system prevalent in our country, which requires a robust system to meet the day-to-day requirements of people,'' he said..