LI NETWORK
The central government has informed the top court that the Ministry of Ayush has allowed the medical practitioners, who practice homeopathy, to prescribe medicines as an add-on drug to the conventional treatment of the COVID-19 patients.
Advocate Rajat Nair, representing Ministry of Ayush, said in an affidavit, “prescription of the medication prescribed by the Ministry of AYUSH to COVID-19 positive patients as an add-on treatment is permitted, and therefore, any contention to the contrary stating that homeopathic medical practitioner cannot prescribe any treatment to Covid-19 positive patients, even as an add-on to conventional treatment is liable to be rejected.”
A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. S. Reddy, and M.R. Shah heard the matter.
The top court reserved the verdict and said that it would clarify the position on allowing medical practitioners in homeopathy to prescribe prophylactic interventions for COVID-19 patients as an immunity booster.
The centre said that the Ministry of Ayush has explicitly suggested the drugs which can be prescribed by homeopathic doctors for:
i) Preventive and prophylactic use
(ii) Symptom management of COVID-19 like illnesses
(iii) Add-on interventions to the conventional care
SG Tushar Mehta, on behalf of the centre, referred to the ministry’s previous advisory, which stated that a homeopathic practitioner is not eligible to prescribe medicines for COVID-19 positive patients. Instead, they can prescribe drugs for increasing immunity.
The affidavit further stated, “A bare perusal of the said advisory would show that that the focus of the said guidelines was to lay down a medically accepted and time-tested intervention which would boost the immunity of the body, which was critical in the human response to infectious disease.”