Hyderabad: Doctors' strike hits some hospitals

Hyderabad: As part of the nation-wide call to boycott duties to protest the CCIM (Central Council of Indian Medicine) notification allowing PG Ayurveda students to conduct surgeries, the Indian Medical Association Telangana unit, allopathic doctors associations from Telangana, Telangana junior doctors, resident doctors from NIMS staged protests on Friday.

With PG doctors staying away from OP and elective duties, medical services, especially elective surgeries, were affected at some government hospitals. Regular doctors and teaching faculty had to chip in with additional responsibilities. Superintendents had to cancel casual leaves of senior doctors in view of the strike. They roped in senior residents. Resident doctors of NIMS protested near the administrative block demanding withdrawal of CCIM Gazette, saying a strong no to what they called as "Mixopathy or Crosspathy"

NIMS RDA president Dr G Srinivas stated that untrained persons practising sophisticated surgical procedures that require years of training under modern medicine would pose a grave threat to public lives.

In the notification, Ayurveda PGs in Shalyathanthra and Shalakyathanthra were given nod to undergo training to independently perform about 58 surgical procedures, including general surgery, urology, surgical gastro-enterology, ENT, ophthalmology and dental medicine

Senior and junior doctors of Gandhi hospital protested against Mixopathy. They took out a rally on the premises demanding withdrawal of permission to non-allopathic doctors to perform surgeries. The protestors submitted a memorandum to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi seeking justice.

Junior doctors of Osmania Medical College held a rally and submitted a memorandum in the DME office.

Dr P Rohith of OMC JUDA in the representation felt that the Centre's ambitious "one nation one system" policy in medical education will be a "cocktail of disaster." OGH Superintendent Dr Nagender stated that there were 1,047 OP registrations on Friday. He said alternative measures were taken in view of junior doctors skipping duties. Hence, there was no impact.