‘Going where no allopath wants to go’

In a hotly-debated move, the first batch of 11 homeopaths has registered with the MMC. Here’s what it means to their practice

MUMBAI: Bringing the curtain down on a bitter battle, the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) recently gave homeopaths the go-ahead to prescribe allopathic medicine, a privilege still being congested in the courts. After the first homeopath was allowed to register on August 4, ten more practitioners received tier certification on September 1.

‘Going where no allopath wants to go’

Although not a full licence to practice allopathy, homeopaths were allowed to register with the MMC after taking a year-long ‘bridge’ course – a Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology (CCMP). It allows them to write prescriptions for the treatment of various medical conditions, including medical emergencies.

However, doctors who practice modern medicine view this as a misstep, a breach in the demarcation between traditional and modern systems of medicine. Armed with an MBBS degree and post-graduate specialisations that take years to acquire, they say opening this door could impact patient safety and the standards of modern medical practice.

Homeopaths, on the other hand, argue that they fill a critical gap in the Indian health care system. They bring healing to marginalised communities – slum residents and remote rural populations – where allopathic doctors do not want to practice.

Hindustan Times spoke to these newly registered homeopaths, from the villages of Jalna and Jalgaon, to the slums of Bhiwandi and Pune, and the resettlement colonies at Mankhurd in Mumbai.

“All the villagers want is quick relief”

Most patients who come to Dr Akshay Gharpude, 33 in the remote Savleshwar village in Mohol taluka of Solapur, seek quick relief. He says there are only three doctors in the village and none of them is an allopathic practitioner. “Most of the 3,500 villagers here want quick treatment as they want to resume work in their fields. They simply cannot afford to take time off or lose wages even for a day,” he says.

On September 1, Gharbude was officially allowed to prescribe allopathic medicines, a decade after he set up his practice in 2017. “Earlier, I could not prescribe allopathic medication even during emergencies like heart attacks. Now I can legally prescribe for primary care issues, regular injuries and more serious conditions such as myocardial infarction and other cardiac-related issues.”

“Travelled 80km from my clinic but made it”

Dr Vijay Wayal, 49, from Jaffrabad village in Jalna district, received his registration to prescribe allopathic medicine after 25 years of practice. “Of the 12 doctors serving the 25,000 people in our panchayat, all except one were Ayush doctors. Only recently, three doctors with MBBS degrees came here, with degrees from Russia,” he said.

For Wayal, the certification has come late in his career and he is well past qualifying for a government job. Still, he put in the work to secure the certification, having taken the CCMP course in 2023. “I travelled 80km each way, from my clinic, three days a week, to attend day-long classes for the CCMP,.” he says.

“What ties me to my patients is trust”

Dr Ranjit Nikam, who has been practising in the slums of Parvati Janata Vasahat in Pune since 2012, says the certification only legitimises what many homeopaths have been doing for years. “Now, I can officially handle emergencies like heart attacks or snake bites or poisoning cases. My role now is to stabilise the person before they reach tertiary care hospitals during emergencies.”

He says the certification will impact neither his patients, nor his practice. “The only thing that ties me to my patients is trust. They trust me to cure them, regardless of what ‘pathy’ I practice. It is for me to decide what I give them,” says Nikam.

“There are no MBBS doctors in the slum area where I practice. People simply cannot afford to pay the fees allopaths charge in other areas,” he says.

“The certification gives us dignity”

Dr Rajshri Memane-Kakade practices along with her homeopath husband in slums in Dhayri and Nare in Pune. She says, “Ayush doctors contributed in a big way while dealing with Covid, H1N1 and Swine Flu. Such disasters were controlled because of the joint efforts of all doctors across all streams of medicine. When you are treating a patient, you are only a doctor.”

Kakade says the couple were the only practitioners in the locality for a long time. The head of the Pune-Sinhagad Doctors’ Association, she says all ten doctors currently practicing in the locality are Ayush practitioners. She runs a nursing home in Pune and gets private doctors to consult at the clinic for her patients.

“I was afraid to even prescribe paracetamol. Now we can even handle emergencies. The certification to practice allopathy gives us dignity and an opportunity to serve our society better,” says Kakade.

“Ayush fills a healthcare gap”

Healthcare experts have long argued that Ayush doctors play a key role reaching out to the marginalised where it is much needed. Dr Yogesh Bhalerao of the Integrated Doctors Association, which represents Ayush doctors, says a large number of vacancies in the rural health sector are filled by Auyush doctors. “The fact is that the health sector in the rural areas is entirely handled by the Ayush doctors and even the government knows that,” he says. “In fact, one of the reasons the government has been pushing for this certification is the lack of doctors practicing in the rural sector.”