Author Topic: Questions after arrest of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council  (Read 2383 times)

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Questions after arrest of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council
LAHORE: The arrest of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) officials over charges of issuing fake degrees to foreign qualified doctors has raised a lot of questions about the professional capability of foreign graduates already working in various health establishments across Punjab.

Every year, hundreds of graduates from different countries come back to the country after completing their MBBS. They have to pass an examination to get a licence to start their practice in the country. The PMDC used to hold the licensing examinations of these doctors, however, the NEB was instead authorised to conduct the exam almost less than a year ago. The recent involvement of PMDC officials in a scandal of issuing fake degrees to foreign graduates highlights the danger to the precious lives of the people, posed by these ineligible doctors practicing across the province.

Senior doctors and other stakeholders have expressed their concern over the serious threat and have raised doubts over the academic competence of foreign-qualified graduates. They also mention the poor performance of foreign-qualified doctors in a licensing exam recently organised by the NEB to prove their point. Only 18 out of 507 medical graduates from 15 different countries could pass the licensing exam, showing an overall pass percentage of 3.5 percent.

Talking to Daily Times, Young Doctors’ Association General Secretary Dr Salman Kazmi said previously there were mere allegations of corruption, however, it has become clear that irregularities have been committed while issuing degrees to foreign-qualified doctors after the arrest of PMDC officials.

He said the NEB has conducted the licensing exams only twice, while hundreds of doctors, who got licenses prior to this, are already practicing in various health establishments posing a “serious threat” to the lives of patients. Most of these doctors, he said, were practising in far-flung districts of the province, adding that only those students go abroad who fail to meet the merit of medical colleges in Punjab.

The tip: 8Pakistan Medical Association Joint Secretary Dr Shahid Malik said the recent scandal involving PMDC officials has exposed their whole mechanism, adding that it could “just be the tip of the iceberg”. Shahid said the recent result shows the poor performance of young doctors, but there are chances that doctors holding senior positions in the academia might also have fake degrees. Terming the PMDC a “toothless tiger, having corrupt officials and a defective system”, he said a whole scam could be unearthed if properly investigated. Shahid demanded that degrees of all doctors should be checked to ensure transparency. “If parliamentarians can submit fake degrees, why can’t doctors do the same… there are scores of people with fake experiences and degrees registered with the PMDC,” he added. The NEB declared the result of the registration examination of foreign medical and dental graduates on Friday, showing an overall pass percentage of 3.5 percent. None of the seven dental graduates who appeared in the exam could make it.

The NEB is a body constituted by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to conduct examinations for registration and equivalence of a candidate’s foreign medical and dental qualifications.

The registration examination is conducted twice a year and it is mandatory for every foreign doctor or dentist to pass this examination before starting practice in Pakistan.

Members of the NEB along with UHS Vice Chancellor Professor MH Mubbashar in the chair announced the result in a press conference.

As per the details, 207 candidates appeared in the exam from China and only six passed, 110 appeared from the Kyrgyz Republic and three passed, 69 appeared from Kazakhstan and five passed, four appeared from Bangladesh and two passed, while one candidate each from Lithuania and Kenya could get through the exam. No candidate from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Damascus, Dominican Republic, Philippine, Romania, Georgia and Ukraine could pass the exam.

Interestingly, the same question paper was given to 32 Pakistani medical graduates from Allama Iqbal Medical College and Services Institute of Medical Sciences and 10 dental graduates from de’ Montmorency College of Dentistry. Out of them, only two medical and one dental graduate failed.

Members of the NEB recommended that all those foreign graduates who failed in the exam must be given another one-year proper training under PMDC-controlled centres in all four provinces of the country.
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