‘Better late than never’ appears to be the policy of the Centre and the State in making better use of the Indian systems of medicine and homoeopathy to strengthen the public health system.

For the first time in the country, ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homoeopathy (Ayush) practitioners are being pressed into service at government hospitals and primary health centres and Karnataka has already recruited a number of them at PHCs.

This is good news for the rural folk as government hospitals in villages and remote areas are starved of allopathy doctors, who refuse to serve in villages.

A number of PHCs have remained without doctors, with grave implications for the villagers. This district, which have quite a few ‘doctor-less’ PHCs, is heaving a sigh of relief at the fact that the process of appointment of Ayush medical graduates has started, though on contract basis.

Though ayurveda and homoeopathy are time-tested systems of medicine with the latter increasingly gaining global acceptance, these tend to be neglected if not treated with contempt by the powers that be.

However, with the advent of the Centre’s National Rural Health Mission, things seem to be changing for the better for the traditional systems.

As per the D M Nanjundappa Committee report, six most backward taluks have been identified in the district where PHCs suffer from a dearth of doctors. Ayush doctors are already being posted at these PHCs. The taluks are Chittapur, Chincholi, Aland, Gulbarga, Surapur and Shahapur.

Mostly ayurvedics

So far about 50 Ayush doctors have been recruited in these taluks on contract basis.

Of those posted by the Department of Health & Family Welfare are 36 graduates (BAMS) from ayurveda, 13 from homoeopathy (BHMS) and a lone recruit from the unani stream (BUMS). There is no move to recruit doctors from yoga and siddha systems right now.

District Health Officer Nalini Namoshi said applications had been called for 52 posts. Of these, 49 have been recruited with 45 actually reporting for duty.

She said adequate drugs had been supplied to ayurveda doctors though homoeopaths were yet to be supplied drugs, but these latter “can easily handle outpatients, help with deliveries and such”. At some places, particularly in Surapur taluk, PHCs are solely managed by ayurvedics and homoeopaths due to the posts remaining vacant there.

Discrimination

Though allopathy practitioners and Ayush doctors are trained in the basics -- in their own separate ways, of course -- of medicine, particularly anatomy, physiology and pathology, besides surgery, the glaring discrimination among them continues unabated. While MBBSs recruited on contract are paid Rs 11,000 a month BAMS/BHMS/BUMSs get only Rs 6,000.

However, the only consolation is that the government has started recognising the importance of traditional medicine.