Surgical Mis-strike

Context:   there is an urgent need to solve the conundrum of different standards for surgical training because patient safety is far more important than the career progression of Ayurvedic postgraduates.

Arguments in support of allowing surgery in Ayurveda

• Surgery is not a new process in Ayurveda:
  • There are already 2 surgical streams in Ayurveda. i.e. Shalya and Shalakya.
  • The oldest-known surgical specialist was an Ayurvedic surgeon/sage Sushrut (600 BC) who wrote the Sushrut Samhita
  • Surgery was practiced by Ayurvedic surgeons long before the advent of western medicine.
• Not all vaidyas will be allowed to perform surgery: only postgraduates qualifying from two surgical streams have been authorised to perform selected surgeries. 

Arguments against allowing surgery in Ayurveda

• Modern surgery is different: from the Sushrut’s millennia-old pre-eminence.
• Ayurvedic surgeons may be unaware of the hidden risks of surgery.
• No authority to decide: if Ayurvedic surgeons possess sufficient proficiency to conduct surgeries safely
• Replication of Allopathy for-profit motives will harm Ayurveda itself:
  • Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) had already sidelined many skills that Ayurveda could have included, which are relevant even today.
  • It will kill the knowledge, purity and goodness of classical Ayurveda, which ironically is the Ayurveda in high demand in Europe, Russia and America.
• Lack of avenues for rigorous training and continuous practice in Ayurvedic Hospitals: Thus it will be hazardous to allow all Shalya and Shalakya postgraduates to undertake surgical procedures.
• Against the norms in India:
  • Specialisation has excluded general surgeons from performing what was once considered routine.  E.g. Only an ENT surgeon can perform a tonsillectomy.
  • Thus allowing Ayurvedic postgraduates to perform surgery counters the above norm.

Way Forward

• In performing surgery, the only benchmark should be the duration of hands-on training received (counted by surgeries under supervision, and being judged through external evaluation.
• Every surgeon’s skills and competence must be tested by applying the same standards.