PMA slams PMDC

LAHORE: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has slammed Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) said it provided cover to the uncontrolled financial interests of private medical colleges in the name of their categorisation.

“The council’s unelected members are destroying the medical education and healthcare system with their dictatorial mindset,” said Dr Ashraf Nizami, PMA president, Lahore, after a meeting here, according to a press release issued on Sunday.

He said that PMDC’s unelected members were taking illogical decisions in haste to serve financial interests of their favourite persons and institutions, which is unacceptable. He said that minimum standards for medical education were essential, but most of the private medical colleges did not meet the minimum required standards of the PMDC.

On the other hand, the faculty in public sector medical institutions and required facilities for the patients in attached government hospitals were lacking, which speaks volumes about the pathetic performance of the PMDC as a regulator of medical education and healthcare services in the country, the PMA leader said. He urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu in order to bring transparency in the affairs of the council.