The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has been protesting continuously against the government encouraging ‘mixopathy’ in medical practice. After a 15-day relay hunger strike, the IMA is now planning a non-cooperation movement which can reach common people. In an interview with The Sunday Guardian, Dr Jayesh M. Lele, general secretary of the Indian Medical Association, Dr Harish Gupta, member of the National Medical Council and a former president of the Delhi Medical Association, and Dr Avinash Bhondwe, former president of the IMA, explain the matter of ‘mixopathy’ and why it needs to be discouraged.
Q: What does ‘mixopathy’ mean?
Dr Jayesh M Lele: Mixopathy refers to when a person who has learnt a particular kind of medicine, like Ayurveda, Unani or homeopathy, practices something other than that. Suppose if this person practices allopathic medicine, it will be called mixopathy. At this moment, these three kinds of doctors are prevalent in India, but they are keen on using the allopathic stream of medicine, and that is why they are using a mixture of streams. This is being called mixopathy or a crosspathy.
Q: How are other associations like the Delhi Medical Association supporting the IMA on this issue?
Dr Harish Gupta: Not only the Delhi Medical Association, but the entire medical fraternity is absolutely one on this issue. Recently, we have seen a notification by the CCIM by the Ayush Ministry that Ayurvedic doctors will be allowed to perform certain kinds of surgeries, whether related to ENT general surgery or others. That is absolutely unfair. The Honorable Supreme Court has clearly let us down. As Dr Lele just said, crosspathy should not be allowed and no streams of medicine can be mixed. If an Ayurvedic practitioner is going to do surgery, we have our objections to that, because they do not have drugs for anaesthesia. So, they will have to use allopathic drugs. They also do not have drugs for patients in ICUs, who need intensive care monitoring and antibiotics. So how can you mix two streams of medicine if they are not practising both? If I am a surgeon and somebody asks me to give them a homeopathic drug, I will never do that because I don’t know the ABCs of homeopathy. That is how it goes, and that is why the Delhi Medical Association is fully supporting this issue. I can assure you that we will do everything possible and we have already raised our voice and written to the government officers concerned. We have also raised the matter at the twelve branches of the Delhi Medical Association and reached the media. This issue is detrimental to the health of the nation and we are going to take it up at the highest level till this notification is withdrawn.
Q: How is mixopathy going to affect modern medicine?
Dr Harish Gupta: Surgery is not a simple thing which you can just read about and be able to practise. It’s a more delicate matter and also not something which can be learned in two or three years. When a student gets admission into an MBBS programme, in the first year, he learns about the anatomy. He learns each and every muscle, every vessel and bone and nerve. Along with that he learns how the body functions, how different things work. In the first year, he also learns the biochemistry, how all the chemicals in the body perform. Then, in the second year, he learns pathology, how a disease changes the organs of the body, how to cure the changes. He learns all this for three years, and then if he gets good marks, he has to go for a postgraduate programme, where he learns more under eminent surgeons or professors about techniques which he starts practicing after that. So, surgery is not about doing something that was done a thousand years ago, it keeps on updating and you have to learn it. And in case of unforeseen situations, a good surgeon has to know how to tackle it, cure the patient and save his life. All these things are important. But with mixopathy, these things will not be done because the basis of Ayurvedic education is totally different. The ultimate sufferer will be the patient.
Q: The Ministry of Ayush issued a clarification two months ago saying that general surgeries will not be included. What steps are you taking after this?
Dr Jayesh Lele: More clarification is needed. Whenever we have filed a red petition in the Supreme Court, all the previous judgements on crosspathy have come up as landmark judgements. We have written to all the possible government institutions like the AYUSH Ministry, CCIM, NITI Aayog, the PMO and the President’s office, but so far we have not had any response from their side. So when this issue was raised in November, we organized a one-day hunger strike. Subsequently, we talked and wrote letters to MPs. Next, a 14-day hunger strike was held across India. This time we wanted every one of the three and a half lakh doctors in the country to participate. Many other medical associations joined us at various other places. Now we are going to start the second phase of spreading public awareness with meetings. We have the first meeting in Delhi on 24 February. We are going to have doctors and senior MPs at the meeting. We are going to distribute banners and posters to every doctor’s clinic in India, where they will display them and talk to their patients and any senior leader who visits them. The most important step in Phase 2Two is the activation of leaders other than doctors. This includes lawyers, CAs, people from corporate sectors and the patients who are the ultimate sufferers. We are going to start immediately: we have issued the press release and I am already getting calls from the branches about the meeting. I have requested for a hybrid meeting so that our senior leaders can join along with local branches, leaders and businessmen.
Q: Do you think medical students will also protest against this?
Dr Avinash Bhondwe: Absolutely, medical students are already involved in this. Our student councils are already working on it. I want to make a few things very clear. We are not against Ayurveda. We respect Ayurveda but Ayurvedic doctors have their limitations. An MBBS doctor has his limitations too: he cannot perform all surgeries, a general surgeon cannot perform cardiovascular and neurosurgeries, etc. But, if Ayurveda has to prosper, Ayurvedic practitioners have to practise their speciality. Surgery is not their field. Secondly, we are not doing it for doctors. As Dr Lele said, the ultimate sufferer is the patient. If we perform a certain thing, it takes years of hard work, on the table training, and the person should be able to handle any unforeseen complications during surgery. We want to take it to the public at large, policy makers in the bureaucracy and others in politics.