MULTAN, April 16: The Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, in collaboration with the Bakhtawar Amin Memorial Trust is going to establish a University Medical and Dental College of 400 beds costing Rs581 millions.

Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Zaffarullah told Dawn on Wednesday the college would help medical graduating students and postdoctoral fellows get the best education and would prepare clinicians to practice patient-centered medicine. He said the institution would identify and answer fundamental questions in mechanism, prevention and treatment of diseases in healthcare delivery and the basic science.

He said the pre-doctoral curriculum of the college would produce leaders in medicine who improve healthcare through research and education.

He said that in Europe there were 3.5 doctors for every 1,000 patients, and according to the World Health Organisation the third world countries there had 1.3 doctors against 1,000 patients. In Pakistan, the ratio is 0.7 doctors against 1,000 patients.

He said there were 136,090 doctors in the country, of which 4,178 were in Balochistan, 2,453 in the AJK, 15,098 in the NWFP, 56,028 in Sindh and 55,232 in Punjab while 3,101 doctors were foreign degree holders.

He said there were 2,0820 female doctors in Punjab, 4,343 in the NWFP, 23,641 in Sindh, 1,369 in Balochistan, 779 in the AJK while 703 were foreign degree holders.

He said according to Pakistan Medical Doctors Council, there were 32 public and 36 private medical colleges in the country and all 68 colleges enrolled 7,000 students in 2007.

He said the project would engage 163 faculty members, 281 administrative officials, technical staff and un-skilled laborers, while 150 to 200 jobs for professional, skilled and un-skilled people would also be generated through contractors and consultants of the project.

He said that college would produce 100 doctors every year and a better service would be provided to the patients.

The college will have the departments of anatomy and forensic medicine, pathology, physiology, bio-chemistry, pharmacology, community medicine and administration.

He said that according to a memorandum of understanding, the trust would provide 10 acres to establish the college and would provide all facilities to its hospital located at Northern Bypass.

He said the college students would use the facilities of trust’s hospital.