PMDC to review fee hike demand by private colleges

LAHORE: Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has agreed to review demand of private medical and dental colleges to increase fee subject to certain conditions, including commitment to ensure merit and not to seek donations.

“The private medical and dental colleges shall implement central induction policy; not to charge any extra money in the name of donations; fulfill corporate social responsibility to provide free delivery of treatment services to the patients as per PMDC rules; no aptitude test shall be conducted in order to strictly follow the merit,” the council decided in its 154th session held under the chairmanship of Prof Dr Shabbir Lehri, President PM&DC, on Monday. Prof Dr Abid Farooqi, Dr Sania Nishtar, Dr Asad Hafiz DG Health, Surgeon General, Dr Amir Hussain, Dr Muhammad Haroon, Dr Mussarat Hussain, Dr Taj Muhammad, Prof Dr Abdul Bari, Prof Dr Eice Muhammad, Dr Imran Naseer, Dr Mangal, Prof Dr Musaddiq Khan, Prof Dr Ijaz Hassan, Dr Farrukh Ijaz, Maj-Gen (r) Dr Khaliq Naveed, Dr Khyaal-ur-Rehman, Dr Feroz Jahangir, Dr Syed Azhar Ali Shah, provincial health secretaries and others attended the session.

The council in its meeting deliberately discussed the recommendations of the committee constituted to review the request of private medical and dental institutions for increase in the fee of medical and dental colleges.

The private medical and dental institutions had requested to revise fee structure of private medical and dental colleges up to Rs1.3 million. The council after a detailed discussion and several disagreements decided that a huge jump in the fee structure should not be done as the PM&DC has to safeguard the interest of public and the students.

This argument was taken up by the council and it was informed that in 2010 in response to suo motu order in which the 550,000 fee of medical dental college were implemented with 7% increase in fee every year. In 2013, the fee of medical dental colleges was 642,000.

However, the council proposed that the fee should not be increased more than 800,000 with a 7% of increase. The council again proposed the subcommittee to negotiate with the private medical and dental colleges to discuss this and other matters.

The council decided that if these terms shall be accepted by the private medical and dental colleges only then the demands of private medical colleges shall be considered in the next meeting. The council decided that this matter may be placed before the next meeting to finalise the demands.