Mangaluru will get government AYUSH hospital soon: UT Khader

Mangaluru, Dec 19: An Ayush hospital will come up at the district Wenlock hospital premises in Mangaluru shortly, according to Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader.

Addressing a gathering at the ‘AYUSH Habba’ at Dr. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama on Saturday, Mr Khader said that Health department treats Indian system of medicine on a par with allopathic medicine.

Ayush was the greatest contribution of Indians to the world. The Ayush habba is an attempt to promote traditional systems of medicine among the public by bringing them on a common platform, Khader said.

Later, he told presspersons that the decision to open the hospital was taken sometime ago. Now, the question was whether it should have 50 beds or 10 beds. Discussions on it were under progress and no consensus had been arrived at.

Once it was finalised, the AYUSH hospital would be a reality, he said.

Mr. Khader said that the government was also examining whether an AYUSH unit could be opened at primary health centres in the State. He said that one could cultivate medicinal plants instead of tobacco. To a question, he said that the government would look into the demand for making AYUSH medicines available at government generic medical stores.

Earlier, the Minister said that consumption of extracts of medicinal plants helped increase immunity power.

He advised AYUSH doctors not to prescribe allopathic medicines to patients and instead they should restrict themselves to their area of medicine to popularise it. The Minister said that if AYUSH doctors did not prescribe their area of medicine who else would promote it.

The Minister said that a two-day holistic health conference would be conducted in Jigani, near Bengaluru, from January 2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda were expected to attend it.

Mr. Khader said later a three-day global meet on wellness would be organised in Bengaluru from February 12.

It would focus on AYUSH and allopathy medicines and treatments. The State Department of AYUSH, Dakshina Kannada district administration and AYUSH Foundation, a non-governmental organisation of Mangaluru organised the ‘habba’.