AYUSH to be included in national health schemes

Courtesy  The Hindu
HYDERABAD, February 14, 2012
STAFF REPORTER


 http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article2892293.ece

Scheme to integrate allopathic, Indian systems of medicine

The Centre is planning to launch a special scheme for delivery of healthcare services in 100 out of 264 focus districts across the country where the health indicators are very low, by integrating allopathic and other Indian systems of medicine soon.

Under the scheme, joint teams of doctors of allopathy, Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy systems of medicine will visit villages frequently to bring about an improvement in the general health condition of people.

This was stated here on Monday by Mr. Anil Kumar, Secretary, Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), here on Monday while inaugurating a national workshop on ‘Clinical Research Methodology in Unani Medicine'.

Modalities were being worked out to include AYUSH systems of medicine in all national health programmes within two years, he noted.

Admitting that there was an immediate need to validate methodology of treatment of diseases in Indian systems of medicine, Mr. Anil Kumar said it was possible only by raising the bar of quality of AYUSH education and research.

He asked the researchers of AYUSH to develop protocols unique to the Indian systems of medicine and by taking care that they were also acceptable to the other side (allopathic system of medicine).

He argued that validation of systems of treatment in allopathic and AYUSH could not be done on common parameters as procedures in allopathy were laboratory-based while they were based on nature in AYUSH.

“Indian systems of medicine will get back the body of a patient in harmony with the nature,” Mr. Anil Kumar explained.

Quoting the outcome of common review mission and national health systems resource centre surveys, the Secretary stated that there was a positive trend in availing of AYUSH systems of medicine by people in the country.

Syed Shakir Jamil, Director General, Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine, Mohammad Miyan, Vice-Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, and others spoke at the workshop organised by Hyderabad-based Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine (CRIUM).