THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Medical services were hit in Kerala as government and private doctors struck work in support of the IMA”s call to boycott out-patient clinics against the Centre”s move allowing post-graduate Ayurveda practitioners to be trained in surgical procedures.
The 6 AM-6 PM strike had caught many patients who had come to the medical college hospital here from neighbouring districts, unawares.
Many patients had come to the hospital since morning.
A man who had brought his mother, a cancer patient, from neighbouring Kollam district, said he was returning with no treatment to her.
“There were no regular OP services and elective surgeries. Only emergency and COVID-19 treatments were provided,” IMA Kerala President P T Zacharias said.
Doctors also took out a march to the Raj Bhavan.
The Indian Medical Association has demanded to withdraw the notification.
The IMA has given a call for withdrawal of non- essential and non-COVID services between 6 AM and 6 PM on Friday to protest against the notification.
The notification by the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) to allow legal practice of surgeries by Ayurveda practitioners and the formation of four committees by NITI Aayog for integration of all systems of medicine will only lead to “mixopathy”, the IMA has said.
