Controversial move: Doctors contest renewal criteria of medical licences

The deadline for doctors to submit their credit hours has been extended to December 31

ISLAMABAD: Medical practitioners have contested the procedure for revalidating licences describing it ‘haphazard, faulty and inadequate’.

Under the Continuing Medical Education (CME) system, doctors are required to maintain certain classes and trainings to earn credit hours for renewal of their licences.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) member Dr Usmanul Haque told The Express Tribune that they should have been duly notified of the new rules.

He, however, admitted that the system was necessary to ensure the quality of medical practitioners and is in vogue all over the world.

“We totally support the CME system, but the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) should have facilitated doctors well before asking them to complete credit hours out of nowhere,” he added.

Another member of the association, Dr Salman Kazmi, said the PMDC had simply plagiarised an international system without considering the limitations and needs of doctors.

The way the new system was introduced, it seems that the PMDC is more interested in ‘minting money’ rather than ensuring well-trained and up-to-date medical practitioners.

“Instead of bullying doctors into completing credit hours, they [PMDC] should have given us a time period of at least three years to adopt it,” Kazmi added.

According to doctors, the council’s approach to the new system has been unrealistic. Doctors who got their degrees in 2014 are also required to complete the stipulated credit hours.

Similarly, doctors in far-flung areas must travel long distances to complete these credit hours through certified instructors and institutions.

Specialists have also been mandated to complete 50 per cent of their credit hours from medical fields other than their area of specialisation which is a waste of time, some doctors shared.

An official from the PMDC, requesting not to be named, said the procedure for CME hours was adopted in 2012 and implemented in 2014.

He added that the rules could not be effectively implemented and the council had to extend the deadline to June this year.

PMDC Registrar Dr Shaista Faisal told The Express Tribune that earning credit hours was very easy, and that doctors had recently been given another six month relaxation to complete them.

The council officials say doctors were first asked to complete their CME hours and get them approved before June, and that this deadline was extended to December 31.

According to the notification, general practitioners are required to submit 30 year-wise CME hours, while specialists are required to complete 15 CME hours.

The officials said doctors can also earn CME hours by having participation certificates from conferences they may have attended.

The notification says the PMDC will suspend doctors’ licences if they fail to meet the deadline and that no certificate without CME hours will be accepted for renewal.

Executive council dissolved

On Friday, the President of Pakistan promulgated the PMDC amendment ordinance 2015, dissolving the controversial executive council of the organisation with immediate effect. Subsequently a new management committee has been named to hold elections for a new executive council.

A statement issued by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination said a new council will be elected within 120 days through ‘transparent and fair elections’.

The move comes after questions were raised about the election of the now dissolved 54-member council as well as its decisions regarding the closure and opening of new medical and dental colleges across Pakistan allegedly through illegal means.

The federal health minister, along with the new management committee entrusted to hold elections, is expected to give a detailed public briefing on the matter on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2015.