The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Panchakarma hospital: CPI(M) to support stir

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Friday, Aug 12, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Panchakarma hospital: CPI(M) to support stir

Staff Reporter

`Commercialisation of ayurveda to be opposed'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPI(M) will fully back the people's agitation launched by the Panchakarma Hospital Protection Council to ensure that the hospital remains a part of Government Ayurveda Hospital.

The Government's attempts to commercialise ayurveda will be resisted tooth and nail, CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan said at a convention called by the council here on Thursday.

Mr. Achuthanandan, who inaugurated the convention, said the Government, which was selling off all its properties, was trying to fool people into believing that Panchakarma hospital will be developed on the model of Regional Cancer Centre or Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology. He said it was deplorable that the Government had gone so far as to evict patients who were undergoing treatment at Panchakarma hospital.

The council, which includes teachers and students of the Government Ayurveda College, has been resisting the reported move by the Government to separate Panchakarma hospital from Ayurveda College and to develop it as a self-financing institute of international standards.

The council alleges that such a move will adversely affect the free treatment facilities offered to thousands of economically backward patients.

The separation of Panchakarma hospital will affect the recognition of Government Ayurveda College, which will lose three major departments attached to Panchakarma.

Also, the college stands to lose 12.5 acres of land from a total of 19.5 acres and this will adversely affect the future prospects of Government Ayurveda Hospital, the council says.

It also alleges that several crucial components of the Panchakarma method of treatment have not been included in the proposed project. Panchakarma hospital will be reduced to the status of an ayurveda resort offering massage treatments to attract foreign tourists, the council says.

S. Guptan Nair, writer, who spoke at the convention, said it was preposterous that while the Government Ayurveda College Hospital lacked basic patient care facilities, the Government was going ahead with a project to set up an international Panchakarma institute.

G. Balamohan Thampi, former Vice-Chancellor, Kerala University, said the Government's move to develop Panchakarma alone was part of a strategy to make money from medical tourism.

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