Thoughts on the PMDC

A few well-wishers of the health of this country will not welcome the dissolution of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC). One hopes the interim team setup will have mercy on the profession. Let there be a complete moratorium on new institutions (supposedly again in force) until the national health manpower needs and utilisations have been reassessed. It is recommended that apart from those elected within a couple of years or so all council members associated with the PMDC over a better part of the past fifteen years be debarred for a period of 10 years. No one without a major postgraduate qualification should be entitled to be on the council.
To ensure that the PMDC represents the profession and is able to assess and deliver on national healthcare needs it should also have demographic and planning experts, medical educationists, healthcare management professionals, technocrats, finance, social welfare and some intelligent senior legal minds. These persons should be tasked with reviewing the PMDC statutes and implementing rules and regulations. If we are serious about producing graduates of a consistent standard and quality it is not necessary to inspect institutions, a practice that solely generates revenue. Priority should be given to institute a national qualifying /registration examination like the NTS or GRE as is done abroad. Finally, the role of the PMDC’s senior employees over the past fifteen years needs to be critically reviewed. One hopes the medical profession and through it health education and the health delivery system will benefit from a radical overhaul.
Dr Mervyn Hosein
Karachi