As a BS Anesthesia student, I entered university believing that I would receive the training necessary to support safe surgical care — an area where precision can save lives. Yet, like thousands of students enrolled in Allied Health Sciences programmes across Pakistan, I now face a difficult question: Are we receiving an education, or merely being handed a degree?
In countless universities, students enrolled in essential fields such as Anesthesia, Radiology, Cardiology, Surgical Technology and Medical Laboratory Sciences face a harsh reality: no clinical exposure, no functional laboratories and no proper faculty. These deficiencies create a widening gap between what students learn on paper and what the healthcare system expects from them in real clinical settings. The result is a growing crisis of competence.
Graduates enter hospitals lacking the skills necessary for safe patient care, not because they lack dedication, but because the institutions responsible for training them have failed to provide even the minimum requirements.
When education becomes a business rather than a responsibility, the consequences inevitably reach the bedside where errors are costly and sometimes irreversible. Despite these widespread problems, regulatory oversight remains weak. Many institutions continue to enrol large batches without securing teaching hospitals, simulation labs or qualified faculty. Meanwhile, students invest years of hard work and financial resources, only to emerge feeling unprepared and professionally insecure.
As a student, I am not asking for luxury but only for the education we were promised and the skills we need to serve patients responsibly. If Pakistan truly aims to strengthen its healthcare system, it must start by strengthening the training of those who will run it.
Tanveer Hussain
Haripur
