IMA doctors threaten to go on 24-hour strike in Maharashtra from 8 am on Sep 18

MUMBAI: The Indian Medical Association’s Maharashtra chapter has threatened to go on a 24-hour strike from September 18 to protest the government’s decision to allow registration of homoeopathic doctors who have completed a certificate course in modern pharmacology.

Nearly 1.8 lakh allopathic doctors across the state will take part in the strike, said IMA Maharashtra president Dr Santosh Kadam on Wednesday. Earlier this year, the state government directed the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) to register homoeopaths who had completed the one-year Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology (CCMP) to allow them to prescribe allopathic medicines to patients in select cases.

A fresh government resolution (GR) was issued in this regard on September 5, upsetting allopathic practitioners . “Our representatives met the chief minister on Wednesday and gave him a memorandum of our grievances. We are going ahead with the 24-hour strike, which will begin from 8 am on September 18. All doctors, students from government and private hospitals from across the state will participate in this strike,” Kadam told PTI.

However, emergency medical services will remain operational, he said. The IMA has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the GR of September 5. Kadam said the resident doctors’ organisations of government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) medical colleges, Central MARD (Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors) and BMC MARD, have opposed the move and pledged to participate in the strike.

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Nationwide agitation by doctors tomorrow

From September 17, the government will start separate registration of homoeopaths with the MMC, allowing those homoeopaths who have completed the CCMP course to prescribe allopathic medicines in select cases. Dr Akshay Dongardive, president of the Federation of All India Medical Associations, warned that doctors will launch a nationwide agitation, even taking to the streets to tell the public about the “risks”, if the government does not roll back its decision.

In a letter to the CM earlier, the IMA’s Maharashtra unit had argued that the decision would allow “inadequately” trained individuals to treat patients and could lead to misdiagnosis, adverse reactions, antibiotic resistance, and patient deaths, especially in rural areas. Registering CCMP-certificated doctors in the MMC would create a dual system, leading to confusion, misconceptions, and mistrust among people.

It would also compromise the international credibility of Maharashtra’s medical education and healthcare services, the association had cautioned. Further, allowing CCMP (homoeopathic) doctors to register with the council would set a precedent for other alternative medicine practitioners to demand similar recognition, leading to “chaos in the healthcare system and erosion of public trust”, it had stressed. The MMC is a government body responsible for the registration, regulation, and ethical conduct of medical practitioners within Maharashtra.