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Senior doctors across the country have expressed dismay at the recent move by the Maharashtra State Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowing homeopaths who have completed a certificate course in modern pharmacology to prescribe allopathic medicines.
While the decision was taken two months ago, the final order was issued recently.
The State government had issued a notification on June 25, 2014, amending the Maharashtra Medical Homoeopathic Practitioner’s Act, 1965, enabling the homeopathic practitioners to practise allopathy after passing the approved course.
R.V. Asokan, the former president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), said the Maharashtra IMA will move the court against the order. “What can we say when governments overlook the health implications of such a decision? Both mixopathy and crosspathy are wrong. Governments have created such a permissive atmosphere that anything passes with impunity,” he said.
Public health activist Babu K.V. added that though the amendment allows homeopaths who passed the certificate course to prescribe allopathic medicines, the order seems to have been passed in a hurry.
“The FDA decision is not in accordance with the court order of 2016, based on the write petition by Pune IMA, and (we) hope it will be withdrawn,’’ he said.
Stating that the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) curriculum is the global standard for the training required to prescribe modern medicines, Rajeev Jayadevan, chairman of the research cell of the Kerala State IMA, said that homeopathy is based on a set of principles and beliefs that are neither compatible with nor supported by the evidence-based framework of modern medicine.
“Prescribing modern medicines should only be done by those who have completed MBBS and are licensed to practise modern medicine. A certificate course cannot replace the depth and breadth of an MBBS degree. Similarly, modern medicine doctors should not prescribe homeopathic or Ayurvedic remedies as they have not undergone the recommended training,’’ he said.
Doctors said that there exist worldwide benchmarks for healthcare and cautioned against lowering the standards by introducing shortcuts such as certificate course and “mixopathy”.
Published – January 01, 2025 07:48 pm IST
