Allow Ayush docs to prescribe Allopathy: Sreeramulu

The state government is now contemplating on granting permission to all Ayush doctors to prescribe allopathic medication for primary care.

Currently, only Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Sidda and Homeopathy) doctors working on government sector are allowed to prescribe allopathic medication for primary care only. In a statement issued by the minister of health and family welfare B Sreeramulu, it has been said that permission could now be granted to private practitioners as well.

This proposal comes even while Allopathy doctors had expressed opposition to the idea of letting government Ayush doctors to prescribe English medicines when one such ideas was being worked on previously.

The minister has said that not only will this mean that access to medical care will be made available in all parts of the State where there are a fewer doctors but will also help weed out quacks from the field. "No leniency will be permitted in taking action against such fake doctors," the minister has said.

This comes after it was brought to the notice of the minister that in some parts of the state, the District Health Officers are taking action against Ayush doctors who have been prescribing allopathic medication. Sreeramulu has sought that the Officers take no such measure.

He has said that even as there is a Supreme Court ruling that doctors are allowed to prescribe medication only in the particular stream they study in, the state government has permitted Ayush doctors to prescribe allopathic medication as a solution to addressing the issue of shortage of doctors.

Blaming the Allopathic doctors, the government has said that the doctors with MBBS degrees refuse to practice in rural areas and also go to the court against Ayush practitioners. He has said that along with their course of study in the Ayush degree classes, Ayush practitioners are also taught the basics of allopathic medicine, giving them an insight into prescribing medication.