Maharashtra doctors' protest explained: What is the CCMP registration row?

The Maharashtra government's decision to begin registering CCMP-qualified homoeopathy practitioners has sparked protests over patient safety, medical training, and prescribing rights

  Doctors in Maharashtra have protested a state-backed move to grant conditional Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) registration to homoeopathy graduates who have completed the Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology (CCMP). Modern-medicine doctors say the arrangement could blur the distinction between homoeopathy and allopathic medicine and create risks for patients.

 

The dispute has involved the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), the Indian Medical Association (IMA), homoeopathy organisations and the Bombay High Court.

 

What has the Maharashtra government done?

 

On August 3, the Maharashtra government issued a Government Resolution concerning the registration of Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) graduates who have completed CCMP. The process is intended to place eligible practitioners on a separate register maintained by the MMC, while they continue to remain registered with the Maharashtra Council of Homoeopathy.

 

The CCMP is a one-year bridge course in modern pharmacology introduced by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) in 2016. It was launched after homoeopathic associations staged prolonged protests, including a 13-day hunger strike in Nagpur in 2013, demanding legal permission to prescribe essential modern medicines. According to the Maharashtra government, the course was introduced to strengthen healthcare delivery, particularly in areas facing shortages of doctors.

 

The programme is designed to train registered homoeopathy practitioners in the use of specified modern medicines. However, it is not equivalent to an MBBS degree or the extensive clinical training undertaken by modern medicine doctors.

 

The state government has also constituted a six-member committee to define what these practitioners will be allowed to do, set professional ethics requirements, and establish mechanisms for handling negligence complaints.

 

Why are doctors protesting?

 

The IMA, MARD and other modern-medicine bodies describe the move as “mixopathy” or cross-practice. Their main objections are:

 

• A short pharmacology course cannot replace the broad clinical education and supervised training required for an MBBS qualification
• Patients may misunderstand a practitioner’s qualifications or the limits of their registration
• The arrangement could weaken the separation between recognised systems of medicine
• The government has not yet established sufficiently clear rules on scope of practice, accountability and patient protection

 

The IMA has also challenged the idea of dual registration and argued that the CCMP framework lacks approval from the relevant national medical regulators.

 

MARD began an indefinite statewide strike on August 5, suspending routine OPD and other non-emergency services at government hospitals. The IMA also warned of a wider, potentially nationwide protest.

 

On Thursday, the Bombay High Court ordered resident doctors to call off the strike and return to work, stressing the impact on patients. The doctors subsequently withdrew the agitation, but the court’s intervention did not resolve the underlying legal challenge to the CCMP-registration framework.

 

What is the current status?

 

The Maharashtra Medical Council issued its first conditional registration to a CCMP-qualified homoeopathy practitioner on August 3, marking the beginning of the new framework. However, the state government subsequently paused further registrations while the legal position is clarified.

 

The larger question remains unresolved. At the heart of the dispute is whether additional training in pharmacology is sufficient to grant homoeopathy practitioners limited prescribing rights and registration with a modern medicine council, or whether the practice of modern medicine should remain restricted to doctors who have completed the full MBBS course and clinical training.

 

The outcome of the ongoing proceedings before the Bombay High Court, along with the recommendations of the six-member committee on practitioners' roles and responsibilities, will determine how the framework evolves.