Medical education: PMA opposes revised faculty rules

Says PMDC responsible for declining standards in health profession.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has condemned the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s (PMDC) revised criteria for faculty strength at pubic and private medical colleges.

The PMDC had revised the criteria on April 3 and sent it to heads of all medical colleges a few weeks later.

At a meeting on Sunday, the PMA held that the PMDC’s decision would lead to lower standards in the 108 public and private medical colleges across Pakistan.

According to the revised criteria, there must be at least one professor, two associate professors, three assistant professors and 16 demonstrators in a college administration.

Earlier, however, colleges were required to have one professor, two associate professors, three assistant professors and 10 demonstrators per 100 students in one subject. The number of teachers would increase according to the increasing number of students in every subject.

On average, there are around 400 to 500 students in each private medical college and 1300 to 1500 in each public medical college. While earlier a college with 500 students required at least five professors, now it would require only one.

Dr Salman Kazmi, the PMA joint secretary, told The Express Tribune that the new criteria would hurt medical education. “Our country has produced the best doctors, surgeons and physicians, but now it seems that Pakistan will be full of quacks in a few years,” he said. He said that it was unfair to make one professor do the job of three professors. “It will only result in professors rushing from one college to another for their lectures.” Dr Kazmi further said that a college needed at least 30 demonstrators.

He said that the PMA had appealed to the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court chief justice’s to take suo moto action on the issue.

PMDC registrar Dr Nadeem Akbar said that public colleges had faced more difficulties under the old rules due to their large strength of students. He said that private medical colleges took around 100 students annually, whereas the annual intake of students by public medical colleges was around 300 each. “We have removed the requirement of one professor per 100 students for the convenience of public colleges,” he said.

PMA president Dr Tanveer Anwar said that most doctors taught in private colleges as part time faculty. He said that the government should convert all private colleges to public colleges so that house officers could get the opportunity to be trained by experienced and qualified doctors.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2011.