TAXILA: Office-bearers of the National Council for Homeopathy and the Pakistan Homeopathic Doctors’ Association have demanded an end to what they called discriminatory attitude of the Punjab Primary and Secondary Health Care Department towards alternative medicines and medical practitioners.

They claimed that health problems in Pakistan cannot be solved without promoting homeopathy and tibb medical systems.

President of the council Ghulam Murtaza Rao, association’s Attock chapter president Dr Aziz and Hassanabdal chapter president Dr Rashid Mehmood told newsmen in Hassanabdal that abolition of the posts of alternative medical practitioners in the government health departments, especially tehsil headquarters and district headquarters hospitals, was equal to denying better healthcare facilities to the masses.

They said health issues across the province were on the rise due to the wrong policies of the health managers. Five universities issue degrees and certificates to homeopathy practitioners, they said, adding the government should establish homeopathy medical colleges at the provincial level.

With the efforts of the National Council for Homeopathy, the Punjab Health Foundation offers interest-free loans of up to Rs500,000 to homeopaths. They said the loans could only be utilised to build clinics as per the standards and guidelines of the Punjab Healthcare Commission.

A few weeks ago, they said, they had apprised the Provincial Health Minister Dr Jamal Nasir about the injustice done with the department of homeopathy and the health department.

The minister was informed that working on a strategy to phase out the departments that had been serving since 1988, a ban on new recruitment was first imposed in 2016. They said state of affairs was causing unrest among the alternative medical practitioners serving in public and private sectors.

“Rather, this step of the present government is also a cause of concern for those patients who are benefiting from homeopathic and medical treatment”. They said the Punjab government had banned the recruitment of homeopathic doctors many years ago, which should be removed. They also demanded that the government should provide homeopathy and tibb treatment in public hospitals so that people benefit from the alternative medical systems.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2023