Dear Editor,
The proposed National Medical Commission Bill is going to spell disaster for the healthcare system and Indian medical doctors are rightly concerned about the Bill. A clause in the Bill, which was recently tabled in Parliament, has proposed to enhance the interface between traditional and modern systems of healing. If the Bill is passed, practitioners of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy will have the right to prescribe modern medicines after completing a ‘bridge course’. ‘Medical pluralism’, a philosophy that is suggestive of integrating diverse systems of healing, is not necessarily a bad idea. It is likely to widen the choice of treatment options for patients. But the proposal to assimilate traditional systems with modern counterparts raises pertinent questions.
For instance, would a bridge course be enough to train orthodox healers? Scientific fervour and temperament of all forms of medicine will be stifled. This will encourage the spawning of half-baked doctors armed with the licence to err. Remember, MBBS doctors will have to compulsorily pass the licentiate exam, despite going through the tough NEET entrance. Given the Medical Council of India needs to be replaced by a robust, corruption-free proactive integrated system, ethical practice and guidelines, but the NMC Bill, in its present form, is a far cry from that vision.
J.S Acharya
Via-e-mail
