Govt authorises post-grad Ayurveda practitioners to be trained to perform surgical procedures

The government has issued a notification which authorises post-graduate practitioners in specified streams of Ayurveda to be trained to perform surgical procedures such as excisions of benign tumours, amputation of gangrene, nasal and cataract surgeries.

The notification by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, a statutory body under the AYUSH Ministry to regulate the Indian systems of medicine, listed 39 general surgery procedures and around 19 procedures involving the eye, ear, nose and throat by amending the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016.

"These regulations may be called the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Amendment Regulations, 2020.  "In the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, in regulation 10, after sub-regulation (8), the following sub-regulation shall be inserted, namely -- During the period of study, the PG scholar of Shalya and Shalakya shall be practically trained to acquaint with as well as to independently perform the following activities so that after completion of his PG degree, he is able to perform the following procedures independently," it read.  AYUSH Ministry Secretary Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha said the notification by the CCIM does not amount to any policy deviation or any new decision.

"This notification is more of the nature of a clarification. It streamlines the existing regulation relating to post graduate education in Ayurveda with respect to the specified procedures.

"Further, the notification does not open up the entire field of surgery to Ayurveda practitioners and specifies a set of surgical procedures. It outlines that not all post-graduates of Ayurveda can perform these procedures. Only those specialised in Shalya and Shalakya are allowed to perform these surgical procedures," Kotecha said.

Chairman of Board of Governors, CCIM, Vaidya Jayant Devpujari clarified that these surgical procedures are being performed in Ayurveda institutes for over 20 years and the notification legalises them.

"The purpose of bringing out the notification is also to set boundaries by specifying the list of procedures so that practitioners restrict themselves to the set of surgical procedures as mentioned in the regulation," Devpujari said.  According to the November 20 gazette notification the procedures listed include removal of metallic and non-metallic foreign bodies from non-vital organs,  excision of simple cyst or benign tumours (lipoma, fibroma, schwanoma etc) of non-vital organs, amputation of gangrene,  traumatic wound management,  foreign body removal from stomach, squint surgery, cataract surgery and functional endoscopic sinus surgery.