PMC surpasses private medical colleges in PMDC inspection

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Medical College (PMC) scored 89.69 per cent marks and secured top position among the private medical colleges and second spot in the list of all public and private colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during a recent inspection of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

It encouraged the college faculty and the administration alike which termed it a big achievement that was made possible due to the consistent hard work of the teachers and students.

The college has enough senior members of the faculty of basic and clinical sciences.

The PMDC requires 500 beds while PMC has 630 beds in its attached teaching hospitals all owned by the college. Its teaching hospitals provide healthcare facilities with free care in the 250-bed Mercy Teaching Hospital where patients are not charged for general and specialist OPD fee.

Also, patients don’t need to pay bed charges and surgery cost. Even the surgeon doesn’t charge patients. However, patients need to pay Rs20 as OPD fee and Rs200 as consultation fee for the specialist doctors in the 250-bed Kuwait Teaching Hospital.

“This allows many poor patients to get healthcare at minimum rates and as a result provide ample opportunities for the teaching of students as well. This is unlike other medical colleges which provide healthcare facilities at non-affordable rates for the general public,” explained Prof Dr Najeebul Haq, founder and principal of the college.

The students’ learning at the undergraduate level and excellent training facilities also contributed to higher pass percentage of ex-PMC students in postgraduate examinations.

“On average, 60 percent students of PMC of the first five batches have passed postgraduate examinations and have entered postgraduate training in various fields within the country (FCPS Part 2) and abroad. It is the highest number of pass percentage in FCPS-1 in both private and public sector medical colleges of KP,” Prof Najeebul Haq said.

The PMC has only one hospital, Prime Teaching Hospital, which charges competitive commercial rates as subsidised facility for unaffordable patient care is available, especially for neurosurgical patients. The services at the Mercy and Kuwait Teaching hospitals are highly subsidised.

The hospital has been charging Rs1,000 for endoscopy, including banding, Rs1,200 as ICU charges, Rs1,200 per day and only Rs2,000 additional charges for the ventilator. In other private hospitals, minimum charges start from Rs25,000 and some charge even more with additional charges of Rs15,000 to Rs25,000 for the ventilator.

Plasmaphoresis, a lifesaving procedure, is provided completely on the kit basis and the hospital does not charge anything extra for services. “We also provide interventional radiology services, some of which are not provided by any other public or private sector hospital in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” said Prof Najeebul Haq.

In ophthalmology, he said, we not only do all routine procedures almost free of cost, but also provide free cornea transplant facilities.

“The PMC is the only private institution in the province with a recognised unit for FCPS Part-2 training in Vitreoretinal Surgery and it provides grossly subsidised facilities to all patients. The postgraduate training facilities are so good that recently a TMO form LRH changed his training supervisor and joined Kuwait Teaching Hospital,” he explained.

Almost all kinds of abdominal laparoscopic surgical procedures are done in the hospital. Most of these procedures are not done in any other private hospital.

The hospital and college are built on 60-kanal of land. The covered area is 173,486 square feet while the PMDC requirement is only 72,000 square ft.

“We exceed in all specified areas allocated for various departments by the PMDC not only in a covered area but also in number. For example, there are 15 operation theatres, though the requirement is five, and 28 ER beds compared with the required 10. There are many other additional facilities,” he said. He said their facilities, including beds and infrastructure, are more than that required for the intake of 150 students.

“As the college is not owned by the PRIME Foundation and not one or more individuals, the income does not go to anybody’s personal pocket. All the income is spent on the college and attached teaching hospitals and benefits the faculty and staff,” said the college principal.