Medical institutes asked to follow set criteria

ISLAMABAD: Health ministry high-ups have asked medical and dental institutes to strictly follow the admission policy to induct only meritorious and eligible students.

At a huddle, chaired by the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Minister Saira Afzal Tarar at the ministry here on Thursday, the officials and members of health regulatory bodies emphasised that public and private medical and dental colleges should strictly follow the criteria and admit only meritorious students to avoid the risk of churning out mediocre medical professionals.

They also agreed that the admission policy in medical and dental colleges should be revised to bring further standardisation in medical profession as per international average.

The consultation meeting also suggested that entry test for medical colleges should be centralised and colleges should follow the merit list duly issued by universities they were affiliated with.

Tarar said that medical curriculum should be in line with the professional demands to compete internationally.

She emphasised that measures should be taken to meet faculty deficiencies particularly in basic science subjects to improve quality of medical education.

The minister emphasised that private sector should be bound to open medical and dental colleges in areas where they were badly needed, while fee structure of private medical colleges should be strictly monitored by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.  She also called for training of faculty teachers by universities to meet the international standard.

Tarar said that foreign seats in public and private medical institutes should be filled transparently and the PMDC should ensure that they were not misused by unscrupulous elements for earning.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.