The Maharashtra health department has formed a 12-member panel to broaden the role of alternative medicine across state-run facilities, a move that follows demonstrations by doctors who had raised concerns about integrating such practices alongside conventional medicine.
Under a Government Resolution issued recently, the panel is tasked with examining how AYUSH disciplines — covering Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy — can be brought into alignment with contemporary healthcare infrastructure, and is expected to deliver its findings within a two-month window.
AYUSH practitioners hold the majority of seats on the panel, with government officials filling the remaining positions. Chairing the body will be biologist Bhushan Patwardhan, who holds an affiliation with the Ministry of AYUSH, with urologist Dr. Suresh Patankar taking on the co-chair role. The committee includes no other MBBS-qualified doctors serving as independent members.
Drafting standards and care pathways for arthritis, hypertension, diabetes, and mental health conditions are among the work the panel is anticipated to take on. The body also carries a mandate to advise the department on pilot schemes for "integrated clinics" — facilities where AYUSH treatments and conventional medicine would be available at the same location — and one organisation noted it had sought clarification from the government on what those integrated services would involve in practice.
The IMA Maharashtra state president, Dr. Santosh Kulkarni, conveyed that the body's central concern at this point centres on the absence of any independently practising MBBS doctors drawn from medical organisations. The IMA's letter to the Department of Medical Education drew a distinction between two approaches: one where different medical systems are blended together during a patient's treatment, and another where each system operates independently, with practitioners confining themselves to their own area of expertise.
Seats on the committee for elected representatives from the Maharashtra Medical Council and IMA members are what the association has formally put forward as a requirement. The argument put forward was that any committee deliberating on scope of practice, prescribing rights, clinical responsibility, referral protocols, and accountability should include doctors with appropriate qualifications before binding determinations are reached.
The IMA has also urged the government to ensure that any committee recommendations rest on patient safety, scientific evidence, and appropriate professional qualifications, and remain within the bounds of statutory regulatory requirements. Dr. Kulkarni noted that a response would be shaped once greater clarity became available.
A separate government resolution issued that same day brought the medical education department and the Directorate of AYUSH together under a single unified administrative structure. Under that resolution, the two bodies responsible for medical education, research, and AYUSH services — previously operating as separate directorates — are being folded into a single administrative unit called the Commissionerate of Medical Education, Research and AYUSH, with all associated materials, including websites, correspondence addresses, stamps, signage, and formal paperwork, being brought into line with the new designation.
No response to a request for comment came from DMER Commissioner Anil Bhandari. Physicians raised questions about the potential effects on medical institutions, while a DMER representative noted that the commissioner already holds dual oversight of both the AYUSH department and medical education. A unified framework now governs the whole arrangement, with the associated language brought into line.
