A major step in medical education, health care improvement

Rawalpindi

A number of health experts serving in this region of the country appreciated the efforts of provincial health department and Secretary Health Najam Shah for launching of Rawalpindi Medical University, Nishtar Medical University and Faisalabad Medical University.

According to many health experts, the launching of medical universities will not only raise the standards of medical education but also health care facilities by producing more and competent specialists in the province.

There are only three medical universities in the Punjab province in the public sector while Sindh which is province with a much lesser population, fewer doctors, medical students and health care facilities has eight medical universities. All the three public sector medical universities are located in Lahore, said Senior Registrar at Holy Family Hospital in town Dr. Zahid Mehmood Minhas while talking to ‘The News’.

He said as many as 78 health institutions including medical colleges, dental colleges and other institutions are affiliated with the University of Health Sciences in Lahore.

The establishment of one medical university northern part of the Punjab province can share some medical institutions in this part of the province facilitating the administrations of medical colleges and medical students further, he said.

He added that the decision of making three medical universities, one in southern region of the province in Multan, the other in northern part in Rawalpindi region and another in central Punjab in Faisalabad is highly commendable as the training programs under these universities will be more supervised and assessable to the doctors being in the university hospitals.

He, like many other health experts, rejected the criticism being done by some sections against the announcement of the establishment of the three medical universities. The decision of chief minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif is highly appreciated and welcomed by general public, medical community especially the medical students and the doctors aiming at higher post graduate medical education, said Dr. Minhas.  The establishment of three medical universities would further improve medical education and healthcare standards in the province, said a top official serving at the allied hospitals.

Pleading anonymity, he said there are 39 universities in India and 27 universities in UK. There are four medical universities in private sector in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

In Northern Punjab, there is no medical university in public sector while Rawalpindi Medical College is one of the oldest and largest medical colleges of the province, said the official.  He said the Sindh province had evolved its own postgraduate system to provide specialist cover to its population, nearly 60 million while Punjab lacks behind to produce specialists to cater to the needs of population with over 100 million people.