Exams mandatory for doctors to obtain licence: Zafar Mirza

SAPM on health says PMDC being replaced by Pakistan Medical Commission

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza on Wednesday said that the government had made it mandatory for medical students to pass national licencing examination in future to start practice as doctors.

Addressing a press conference, Dr Zafar Mirza said that without passing this examination, the government would not allow any MBBS student to start medical practice even after completing four-year education and house job.

Regarding the examination, he said, it would be introduced from March 2020 and each year two such examinations would be held. He added the objective was to know the professional capability of doctors and level of knowledge he or she obtained from the concerned medical college.

"It is now necessary to check the standard of doctors as we cannot send our loved ones for treatment from these substandard doctors. It is our task to improve the quality of medical education and discourage practice of doctors with poor professional capabilities," Mirza said.

Moreover, there would be a quality national level examination for FSc students for admission in medical and dental colleges on passing their FSc examination. He added the examinations would be held throughout the country on same day.

He said the purpose of setting up of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) by dissolving the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) is to set policies and standards related to medical education in accordance with the requirements of the modern era.

PMDC was formed in 1960s when there were only few medical colleges and hospitals, now there were more than 100, obviously, the council has outlived its utility, the SAPM on health told the media.

He said that in this regard the government had promulgated two ordinances Medical Tribunal Ordinance and Pakistan Medical Commission Ordinance 2019. He said that the government would soon introduce a bill in place of this ordinance. He added there would be a detailed discussion in the parliament and the concerned standing committee on the bill.

“We have sent a summary to Prime Minister Imran Khan, and within a week the commission will be established,” Mirza said.

Sounding the death knell for hundreds of jobs, he said all employees of PMDC will be fired with six-month advance pay under a Golden Handshake package.

New hiring will be made for the PMC, however, ex-employees of PMDC will be given preference, Mirza said.

Elaborating on the ordinance dissolving PMDC and establishing PMC, he said there would be three formations with different responsibilities related with the medical education. He said that members of all three set-ups would be appointed on merit and as per the requirement of the bodies concerned.

PMC would have nine members, National Medical and Dental Academic Board 19 members and National Medical Authority would have seven members, SAPM told the media.

He said there were issues of corruption, nepotism and laziness in the functioning of the council that badly affected the quality of medical education in the country. He said that the government had to seal the record of PMDC as important documents of doctors were present with the council besides record of all medical and dental colleges. He added the record would be shifted to the secretariat of Pakistan Medical Authority which was being established, on which the local administration had been asked to take all PMDC record in its custody till completion of process of reorganization.

He expressed the hope that the meeting of the council would be held next week to plan things. Mirza said that fee structure of the medical colleges would be decided by themselves however the new system would be responsible for fixing a cap on the fee while approval of new medical colleges would be made as per procedure. He said that there was a need of having legal framework to introduce reforms in health sector particularly for improving the standard of medical education.

Polyclinic emergency ward extension

The Federal Government Poly Clinic Hospital’s emergency department now has 10 extra beds and two rooms for doctors.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza inaugurated the Polyclinic emergency ward’s extension on Wednesday.

The minister was accompanied by Secretary Federal Health Dr Allah Baksh Malik, Polyclinic Executive Director Dr Shoaib Khan and other officials. The representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also handed over equipment for emergency department to the hospital’s administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2019.