Proposed new integrated medical course to be of over 5 years, with one year internship: RTI

NEW DELHI: The centres proposed new integrated medical course combining MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) and BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) at the JIPMER in Puducherry is an over five-year degree course, with a one-year internship to award the dual degrees, an RTI reply has revealed. The proposal, which is prepared by Auroville Foundation and announced with great fanfare by Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare and AYUSH, Prataprao Jadhav, on May 27, also states that the syllabus for phase 1 is ready and is prepared on the competency-based curriculum (CBME) proposed by the National Medical Council (NMC), a statutory body that regulates medical education, medical professionals, institutes, and research. However, what is ironic is that the key regulatory bodies, including the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM), which decide on new courses and syllabi, have not met once or been involved in the proposal, as per RTI documents. This paper was the first to report on the centres push for an integrated medical course that would combine MBBS and BAMS. Following the report, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), representing over four lakh medical practitioners, strongly condemned the move to mix different systems of medicine unscientifically and demanded that the government withdraw the regressive proposal in the best interest of the people's health. What is also interesting is that despite its proposal of starting an Integrated, Dual Degree Undergraduate Medical course on January 25, 2024, and the announcement by the Union Minister, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) has refused to share the details after Kerala-based activist Dr K V Babu filed an RTI. Moreover, Auroville Secretary Dr. Jayanti S Ravi, who acknowledged in her January 25 letter that discussions were held over the last several months with Dr VK Paul, Member, NITI Aayog; Dr. Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, AYUSH, and others, has also failed to share comments on the integrated course with the Union Health Ministry despite repeated reminders - not once or twice but four times. Speaking with this paper, Dr Babu said: There is no provision under any law in India to award MBBS and BAMS degrees after pursuing any course. From the files availed using RTI, it seems the government is supporting the proposal to start a new course to award a dual degree of MBBS and BAMS by the Auroville Foundation in association with JIPMER and some satellite centres. There is nothing to suggest that the regulatory body in this case, the NMC, had ever discussed it in a joint meeting with other regulatory bodies, which is mandatory under the statute, he said. Pushing political decisions via regulatory bodies is not a good sign for medical education and public health in our country, he added. In her letter, Dr Ravi, the former Gujarat-cadre IAS officer, who initiated the course, said, It is meant to be a bold experiment to allow for synthesis of the ancient and modern in various disciplines and aspects of life. In view of this, there will be no other place better than Auroville Foundation to start the course to provide an integral approach to healthcare. The curricula are now being fine-tuned for detailed integration of the two streams of science, said the letter, which was shared with Dr Babu on August 22 by the Union Health Ministry following his RTI. It further said the ministry should eventually consider setting up a satellite centre of the Institute of Teaching and Research (ITRA) in Ayurveda, Jamnagar, as well as a satellite centre of JIPMER as the Auroville-JIPMER-ITRA at Auroville Foundation. As its vision, the proposal said it is to develop curricula and resource material which can help medical students across the globe to learn an integral approach to health. It also said their mission is to become an apex institute of the highest degree for the synthesis of modern medicine and Ayurveda; to provide undergraduate education of the highest quality in contemporary medicine and Ayurveda, and to produce talented doctors who are capable of identifying and delivering the best possible therapeutic options from modern medicine and Ayurveda. How long will we allow our national educational system to exclude our own ancient healthcare treasures and the greatest spiritual insights? The health benefits of modern medicine are indisputable. However, its deductive analytical approach must be synthesised with a holistic approach of Ayurveda. It is the beauty of Ayurvedic interventions that they are well blended with daily life and appropriate for people of all ages. They provide early prevention besides supplanting modern treatment. It is here that the innovation in Medical Education becomes imperative. India, the source of Ayurveda, needs to develop an all-inclusive healthcare system and show the world a way of perfect synthesis. We need a national system of medical education which provides training of both modern and Indian systems of medicine in a systematic manner. Such an innovation will be good not only for our country, but also to the world at large. India can and must take the lead in this direction. It further said the proposal to establish a medical college that offers inclusive training in modern medicine and Ayurveda stems from an aspiration to make the medical education centered on the Indian system, to make doctors patient-centric, and the approach human-centric, deeply founded in the principles of integral Health as pronounced in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.