COVID-19 treatment | SC allows homeopathy, AYUSH doctors to prescribe medicine

Homeopathy and AYUSH doctors will have to ensure that the medicines they are prescribing are government-approved tablets or concoctions and that these are being prescribed as add-on drugs along with conventional treatment for the novel coronavirus disease.

Moneycontrol News

December 15, 2020 / 16:06 IST

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Upholding the Centre’s advisory issued on March 6, The Supreme Court has allowed qualified AYUSH doctors and homeopathy practitioners to prescribe medicines for treating COVID-19 patients, reported Bar and Bench. However, the doctors will have to ensure that the medicines they are prescribing are government-approved tablets or concoctions and that these are being prescribed as add-on drugs along with conventional treatment for the novel coronavirus disease.

On December 15, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan also asked AYUSH doctors to make sure they are not advertising such concoctions as a cure. This means, qualified Ayush doctors will only be allowed to prescribe medicines to COVID-19 patients as immunity boosters.

During the hearings, the Centre had submitted before the Supreme Court that homeopathy doctors too can prescribe treatment to COVID-19 patients "as a preventive measure", but these "cannot be termed as a cure".

Meanwhile, the Ministry of AYUSH also clarified that while issuing guidelines to AYUSH practitioners, it had "clearly mentioned that all these medicines are to be administered as a preventive measure or as an add on to the conventional treatment and should not be treated and/or prescribed as a cure." The Ministry had further said that such drugs are for preventive and prophylactic use, or as add-on interventions to conventional COVID-19 care.

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