Abortions by midwives, homeopaths?
Well-trained, certified professionals must do it, say Tamil Nadu doctors
By : aishwarya vp
Update: 2014-11-09 05:42 GMT
Chennai: Members of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association are opposing the proposed move by the Union health ministry on the amendment in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, which allows ayurveda practitioners, homeopaths, nurses and midwives, to conduct abortions. Doctors say only well-trained and certified professionals could carry out abortions, as others cannot handle certain critical conditions.
Dr K. Senthil, state president of the association says, “Such procedures should be carried out only by professionals, who have received both theoretical and practical training, besides being qualified from a certified institution, through certain norms, accepted by the government.”
The government is compromising, to overcome the nation-wide shortage of doctors. But, this is not the condition in Tamil Nadu, where there are enough MBBS graduates. “Around 4,000 graduates pass out from both government and private medical colleges, every year.
Of them, around 500 to 700 candidates are recruited by the government, while around 300 people go abroad for higher studies, around 500 are recruited via all India quota and the rest 2,500 practice in private institutions and clinics.”
Though the doctor-patient ratio is not at par with western countries, India is not far behind and is better, compared to other countries, he says and adds, “In that case, the Medical Council of India can relax the norms and can approve many medical colleges and increase the MBBS seats.” There is a shortage of staff only in super-specialities and paraclinical subject staffs like anatomy, forensic, biochemistry and so on, he adds.However, the doctors welcome the traditional practitioners, to continue their type of treatment.