PMA flays PMDC for creating hurdles in registration of doctors

Karachi
The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Wednesday vehemently criticised the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) for “harassing” doctors by claiming that the council was creating hurdles in the registration of fresh graduates.
Addressing a press conference at the PMA House, secretary-general Dr Mirza Ali Azhar said the PMDC had suddenly begun demanding certificates of Continuing Medical Education (CME) from doctors without any prior planning or facilitation.
“The PMDC is supposed to register medical graduates, and monitor and regularise medical education but it has become a party to activities against the interest of patients and doctors,” he said. “It has become a body which recognises all kinds of medical and dental colleges, with or without a teaching faculty, teaching hospitals and patients. The council has no control over either the public or the private sector where owners of medical colleges are charging huge amounts in fee and donations from parents of medical students.”
Dr Azhar said the PMA, the College of Family Medicine (CFMP) and other professional associations were concerned over the registration of fresh graduates with the PMDC and continuing medical education. “We hope that someone in Islamabad will instruct the PMDC to facilitate doctors instead of harassing them,” he said. “Doctors across the country are facing problems in the registration process with PMDC. They sent their documents months and years ago and have yet to get registered.”
He alleged that the PMDC, despite employing a large number of people, was delaying the registration of fresh graduates and fresh fellows of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan “without any valid reasons”.
Azhar was flanked by Dr Qaiser Sajjad, Dr Idrees Adhi and Dr Qazi Wasiq who said it was the PMDC’s responsibility to register young graduates, family physicians and specialists coming back to Pakistan from abroad.
Dr Azhar thanked the media for helping the PMA lead a campaign against night medical colleges whose establishment was stopped after their loud protests. He said this unprofessionalism on the part of PMDC had demonstrated how the council was only interested in making-making projects and the federal government was responsible for allowing the situation to get to this stage.
However, he said, despite many rulings of the court the government still seems to uninterested in changing the composition of PMDC and making it an independent, autonomous and powerful regulatory body.
He said for the past few years the PMDC had turned into a council of private medical colleges and facilitated the recognition of sub-standard medical education. They said it was time the government took a decision to make a powerful commission for looking into the matters of the PMDC and form a new secretariat only on merit.
“It is time to act and regularise medical education and training in Pakistan, both for the interest of patients and the profession,” he said.
As far as the continuing medical education was concerned, said Dr Azhar, the PMA and CFMP had always reiterated organisation of such programmes and had been doing so themselves regularly.
“Every branch of PMA in all provinces of Pakistan organises programmes of continuing medical education regularly to educate and promote scientific thinking in the profession,” he said. “Instead of creating a system to hold such programmes and building capacity in this regard, the PMDC has suddenly started demanding certificates without any prior planning or facilitation for those affected. This is tantamount to harassing doctors.”
He expressed the exasperation of PMA and CFMP on this unprofessional attitude of the PMDC and demanded to organise a system of holding programmes of continuing medical education in the country.
“We believe that the PMDC has a very important role to play in regulating and standardising medical education and training in Pakistan,” said Dr Azhar. “But it will only be possible when the federal government acts to empower the council into an independent, autonomous and powerful body with few members and an honest secretariat.”
He said the PMA encouraged all doctors in the country to attend programmes of continuing medical education to keep abreast of the advancements in medicine.