Ayush ministry battles for good health

Hyderabad: The formation of a separate Ayush ministry at the Centre  with minister of state (independent charge) Shripad Yesso Naik at the helm is a reason to cheer, but the state of the department in Telangana is such that practitioners claim that the benefits will not reach them.

Dr Mallu Prasad, Central Council of Indian Medicine member, said, “We don’t have a commissioner or even an additional director. With the state bifurcation and lack of employees, this department is suffering the most.

We need to fill the vacant posts of professors and principals or else the colleges will not be eligible for admissions. The deadline is December 31, and there is no move to recruit due to the division process.

Education, employment and also the funds being granted for the various schemes may not be available for us due to these reasons.”

A total of 43 posts of professors are lying vacant in the two Ayurveda colleges in Telangana. The two colleges in Hyderabad and Warangal do not have professors and there are 18 posts vacant for undergraduate course and 11 for post-graduate course in Hyderabad.

As Warangal has only undergraduate course there are 14 vacancies. Similarly, 94 posts are vacant in Nizamia General Hospital and over 40 posts are vacant in Homeopathy colleges.

These are the growing problems which are plaguing the department and with schemes for infrastructure, drug control and education being launched, the practitioners are a worried lot.

A senior homeopathy doctor in the Government College said, “The benefits will reach Telangana only when this tangle is sorted out.

The centre has drafted the policy, but it is for the state to implement it. Till we streamline and put it in order no benefits can be availed of.

There is a need to draft proper proposals, channelise money and also prioritise our needs.” The present worry in most colleges and teaching hospitals is to make up with the deficit of manpower as that will be a major hitch in securing admissions for 2015-16.

Meanwhile Telangana faces lack of Ayurvedic drugs

Building confidence in Ayurvedic doctors is the motto of the Central government but doctors claim that the ground realities in Telangana are very different.

Apart from the bifurcation blues that the department is grappling with, the major problem is  non- availability of drugs.

Former principal of Ayurveda College, Dr S. Sarangapani said, “The initiatives by the Centre are very good but in reality the drugs prescribed by doctors are not available in the government dispensaries.

This is the first level of frustration suffered by many of us. There are 45 medicines short-listed which are required for common ailments. But these are not available most of the time at the government stores.”

These hitches are proving to be a major problem for young doctors who get frustrated and then switch to allopathic medicines.

The college has been conducting motivational and retention training to ensure that the young doctors do not drift to other streams.

“But the struggle is too much. Sometimes, the frustration level is too high. Also patients come to Ayurvedic doctors after they have tried other forms of treatment which then becomes a very long drawn process.