The Ministry of AYUSH has initiated steps to open Out-Patient Departments and In-Patient Departments of Ayurveda and Homeopathy in all the existing and future All India Institutes of Medical Science (AIIMS) in the country, Union Minister of State for Ayush Mahendra Munjapara has said.

“This is being done to carry out the Centre’s decision to provide patients with the option of getting Ayurveda and Homeopathy treatment along with Allopathic treatment in all Centrally-run medical institutions,” the Union Minister said.

Although the demand for Ayurveda treatment has been witnessing a steady rise worldwide, it is still widely believed that Ayurveda lacks a comprehensive method to tackle emergency cases as well as carry out complicated surgeries. This has prompted the Supreme Court to observe that Ayurveda doctors and treatment practices cannot be held at par with Allopathy practitioners. However, the real reason for this is the stagnation that the field of Ayurveda has been experiencing for almost two millennia now, he said.

The Minister, a practising physician himself, hoped that bringing Ayurveda back to the mainstream through AIIMS and other medical institutions would open the doors for new research and practices in the field which, in turn, would pave the way for a holistic treatment  protocol with little or no side effects.