A Misguided Policy That Cuts Deep into Patient Safety

The Hindu     1st December 2020     Save    

Context: Allowing graduates in Ayurveda to practise surgery without proper training/ apprenticeship can have adverse consequences for the safety of the patient.

Why “Ayurveda Surgery” is Not a Suitable Option

  • Surgery is an interdisciplinary and multidomain endeavour: which requires knowledge of the modern medicine system, whereas Ayurveda is limited to a specific domain.
    • It is impossible for Ayurveda to incorporate surgical techniques while ignoring the other domains of modern medicine.
    • Ayurveda professionals lack clinical judgements: The surgeon needs to know when not to perform surgery, a skill commonly called clinical judge­ment; which is acquired through apprenticeship.
    • The idea of competence with­ out comprehension should not lead us into believing that surgery is a suitable subject for its application.
  • Errors in surgery can be devastating:
    • Data from the United States suggests that up to 4,000 surgical errors occur each year despite well­ considered controls on who can perform surgery.
    • Legal mechanism like the Consumer Protection Act serves as an incentive to modern medical practitioners to provide high-quality health care.
  • Fossilised development of Ayurveda: The traditional knowledge in India, like Ayurveda, has become the victim of self-serving apparatchiks; preventing its development and growth.
  • Ayurveda surgery could deepen inequity: because Ayurveda surgery will be patronised only by the very poor with limited access to modern medical care.

Way Forward: Incorporate traditional medical systems into modern medicine.

  • Increase the number of government medical colleges for reducing the shortage of trained medical personnel in rural areas.

Conclusion: Safety of patients should not become a victim of misguided policies based on a poor understanding of what safe surgery requires.