Islamabad : The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has disposed of over 110 complaints of medical negligence and professional misconduct and cancelled or suspended the registration of at least 30 doctors since March this year, said PMDC president Prof Dr Tariq Iqbal Bhutta.
He told reporters here that the current 17-member Council, the supreme decision-making body of the PMDC working since March 13, 2019, had carried out the inspection of nationwide medical and dental colleges to check standards of education and facilities.
"The colleges not having the minimum standards will be closed down as if that doesn't happen, the standards of Pakistani MBBS and BDS courses will lose international recognition," he said.
The PMDC president said the Council was registering over 1,000 Doctors annually through the NEB examination of Pakistani citizens with foreign basic medical and dental degrees.
He said the Council held 10 Sessions in a short span of time for speedy disposal of cases, timely decision-making and framing of regulations on the recommendations of its committees.
The PMDC president said the Medical Colleges Admission Regulations 2018 had been revised, while the Admission Policy for Session 2019 -20 had been announced to ensure transparency and merit in the admission process.
He said the MD–CAT (entry test) would be held on Aug 25 and Sept 8 across the country through admitting universities.
The PMDC president said the inspection and evaluation criteria for recognition of the colleges had been revised and implemented by the council.
He said the new criteria had been pilot-tested before implementation.
"Four training sessions on new inspection criteria have been conducted since March in Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore with over 400 participants," he said.
The PMDC president said under the new criteria, inspections of all medical and dental colleges in public and private sectors were being carried out.
"The objective of inspections is to improve and enhance the standards and quality of medical and dental education," he said.
The PMDC president said major Information Technology reforms were initiated in the PMDC which included infrastructure development, capacity of staff, paperless environment, e–filing, installation of latest software’s as well as development of a user–friendly website, while the Faculty Appointment and Promotion Regulations were being revised.
He said digitalization in PMDC had been started, while the Council had ordered the external financial audit of the PMDC operations since July 2011.
The PMDC president said the PMDC Was working for its global recognition through World Federation of Medical Education in 2019.
He said the PMDC had conducted NEB Step I Exam through National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) Rawalpindi on 23rd June 2019 in which 2497 candidates appeared and the pass percentage remained 34, while the NUMS Rawalpindi conducted NEB Step II on 28th July 2019 in which 1231 candidates appeared in exam and 66% passed.
The PMDC president said the provisional licence and registration process had been made efficient enabling a turnaround period of less than a fortnight to assist new graduates to start their house jobs as early as possible. "All licensing and renewal processes are being brought online and through a secured data system to enable immediate processing doing away with the past delays," he said.
The PMDC president said students had made a priority being our future doctors and almost all pending matters of student registrations which were blocked due to violations by colleges have been resolved to ensure the student is not penalized and is able to continue their medical education.
He said the pending litigation had been fast-tracked for a higher rate of disposal to remove bottlenecks in the system and allow for students and doctors to have their grievances addressed and their outstanding issues resolved.
