The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has criticized the Kerala government’s decision to supply liquor to alcohol addicts based on doctor’s prescription.
They said it was an unethical and a wrong step for a doctor.
As per reports, the Kerala chapter of the IMA has written a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking for a reconsideration of the government’s decision.
“Alcohol withdrawal can be managed successfully using medications and we feel that asking doctors to recommend alcohol itself as the treatment of alcohol withdrawal would be sending a wrong message to the public,” the IMA said.
“We worry that this would motivate many people to approach doctors to get ‘prescriptions’ for alcohol, leading to fraud and malpractice,” the IMA added.
The Kerala government has recently shut down all liquor shops in the state after the nationwide lockdown was imposed in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19.
However, nine cases of deaths were reported from the state which was due to withdrawal symptoms of alcoholism.
The state on Monday reported 32 new positive coronavirus cases and one death taking the total number of patients under treatment to 213 in the state.
A 68-year-old man died of the novel coronavirus in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday taking the number of COVID-19 deaths in Kerala to two.