Pakistani doctors being rejected globally: PMA

Patients are suffering across Pakistan, while countries around the world have stopped accepting our doctors due to their poor training at our medical educational institutions.

This was stated by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Friday during a news conference that was addressed by its recently-elected office-bearers, including its General Secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad, at the PMA House in Karachi.

Dr Sajjad said medical education is deteriorating very alarmingly in entire Pakistan, and due to that, substandard doctors are being produced by the medical colleges in the country. Many colleges don’t even have complete faculty, he added, which is resulting in poor health service delivery.

“We will put our acts together to get the PMDC bills passed by the parliament so that the present status of chaos and confusion is resolved as soon as possible. Universities, especially those imparting medical education, have mushroomed in the past 15 years but without planning and proper legislation.”

He said that there are 30 medical universities and 158 medical colleges in Pakistan: 81 in Punjab, 42 in Sindh, 28 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three in Balochistan and four in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

“We believe the PMDC should mention the faculty of each medical college and university on its website. We have time and again said the PMA is not against private medical education, but we believe that all colleges imparting medical education should follow the prescribed rules and regulations of the PMDC.”

He said the PMA has been demanding that there should be a ban on government officials going abroad for medical treatment, adding that the officials should be made to get treatment at public hospitals. “In this way the public hospitals will definitely improve.”

Expressing grave concern over increasing drug use at educational institutions, the PMA office-bearers said the government should act promptly to save the future of the nation. It is not acceptable that the drug mafia is spoiling our youth, they added.