Govt backs integrated medical course proposed by Auroville at JIPMER without consulting regulatory bodies: RTIs
However, the announcement of starting such a course, which met with stiff opposition from modern medicine practitioners, has one big catch – the regulatory bodies, including the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM), do not seem to be involved in the proposal or even setting up the curriculum, as per RTI documents.
File noting, made available through RTIs, has shown that the Union Health Ministry has sought comments from JIPMER about its proposal, the details on the course and its curriculum not once or twice but four times.
The last time the ministry wrote to JIPMER to comment was on July 11 – nearly two months after Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and AYUSH, Prataprao Jadhav, announced on May 27 about the course, stating that 'it is in the conceptual stage, and efforts are underway to frame a new syllabus.'
The ministry's push for comments from JIPMER is in sharp contrast to a similar proposal made in 2022 by a Dehradun-based individual who had suggested changes in medical courses etc.
At that time, the union health ministry had forwarded the proposals to the NMC, a statutory body that regulates medical education, medical professionals, institutes, and research.
Moreover, there was no joint meeting involving all the three regulatory bodies – the NMC, the Central Council of Homoeopathy and the Central Council of Indian Medicine - which meets every year once to enhance the interface between Homoeopathy, Indian Systems of Medicine and modern systems of medicine – to discuss the new course.
Kerala-based RTI activist, Dr K V Babu, who filed a series of RTIs to get more information about the government's attempt for 'mixopathy,' said the NCISM to his question on more details about such a course said, 'No such information is available with this Commission.'
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