Doctor or not? Physios, pharmacists reject PMDC recommendation

Council advises health ministry to bar physiotherapists, pharmacists from using title of doctor.

ISLAMABAD: Physiotherapists and pharmacists have rejected a recommendation of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to stop physiotherapy and pharmacy practitioners from using ‘doctor’ with their names.

Thus PMDC has requested the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination to bar physiotherapists and pharmacists from billing themselves as doctors. The ministry has not taken a decision on the issue yet.

Physiotherapists and pharmacists associations, however, have rejected the PMDC recommendation saying the council has no authority over them.

Pakistan Pharmacist Association Senior Vice president Khalid Saeed Bukahri termed the move ‘nonsense’. He said doctor of pharmacy and physiotherapy was a certified and recognised degree all over the world.



He said the Pharmacy Council of Pakistan, a government body responsible for registration of pharmacists and promotion of pharmacy education in the country, had issued a notification according to which pharmacists could use the title doctor. “A general MBBS degree-holder medical practitioner’s job is to only diagnose the disease, while it is the pharmacist’s job and expertise to prescribe medicines.

“Similarly, physiotherapists are qualified to treat aliments and injuries related to muscular disorders through physical methods”, Bukhari said.

He said the PMDC was feeling a competition from physiotherapy and pharmacy, which were relatively new fields in the country.

Dr Asghar Khan, member of the Pakistan Physical Therapy Association and an associate professor at Riphah College of Rehabilitation Sciences said, said PMDC had no mandate to issue such a notification since the body deals with medical and dental education and practice only. He said the PMDC notification was unconstitutional.

“We have already contacted all provincial health secretaries and they will not be taking any decision without coordinating with us”, Khan said.

PMDC Registar Dr Shaista Faisal told The Express Tribune that according to the definition, a doctor means a qualified person who can perform basic surgery and general medical tasks.

She said physiotherapists could not be called doctors since they cannot perform a surgery.

Faisal said physiotherapists and pharmacists could be potential quacks since they could misguide the public by billing themselves as doctors and by performing medical tasks they are not qualified to do.

“PMDC will seal all clinics where physiotherapists and pharmacists are practicing as ‘doctors’,” Shaista said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2015.