ISLAMABAD: Doctors who studied and trained in Cuba resumed their agitation on Monday for recognition after rejecting the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s offer that they retrain at home for one year before being allowed to practice medicine in the country.

After the talks with the PMDC broke down, scores of them stormed out of the regulatory authority’s office and roamed on Islamabad streets, demanding that the PMDC recognise their Cuban MBBS degree unconditionally.

PMDC Registrar retired Brig Dr Hafizuddin Ahmed Siddiqui told Dawn that the council would meet on Tuesday to discuss the issue. A representative of the Higher Education Commission has also been invited to the meeting, he said.

“We believe that the Cuban graduates are very good in theoretical study but are weak in clinical work. So it is suggested that they repeat house job. However, the final decision will be made in Tuesday meeting,” he said.

In all, 930 such doctors have been in limbo since their return from Cuba over a year ago.

Cuba had offered them free education to cement the goodwill its corps of doctors had earned in providing medical relief following the devastating 2005 earthquake, which killed over 70,000 people and injured several times more in northern Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

For over a year, they had been agitating that the PMDC issue them the Registration of Medical Practitioner (RMP) certificate to practice as physicians.

On Monday, some 150 of them took the demand to the current interim management of the PMDC, which asked them to send three representatives to negotiate the issue.

One of the representatives, Dr Imran Shahzad, later told Dawn that they were received by Dr Abid Farooqi, a member of the interim management committee.

“Dr Farooqi told us that the PMDC is ready to issue them the registration certificate for one year to work under some senior doctor. We discussed the offer with other colleagues who rejected it calling it nothing but House Job,” he said.

So all of them decided to continue the protest ‘until the issue is resolved’ and reached the square in front of the parliament house.

Opposition MNA Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and PTI central leader Fauzia Kasuri joined them to show solidarity with the protesting doctors who dispersed in the evening, announcing that on Tuesday they would stage the protest outside the PMDC office.

One of them, Dr Ashfaq Ahmed, told Dawn that before returning to Pakistan the Cuban graduates had approached the PMDC to allow them to do the house job at home but they were directed to do that in Cuba.

“Everyone of us spent seven years in Cuba for our MBBS degree, with all expenses paid by the Cuban government,” he said. The government of Pakistan had to pay nothing for our education, he added.

“We spent the first year learning Spanish language, the next five years for the MBBS degree and the last one year in house job in Cuba,” added Dr Ashfaq who came from D.G. Khan.

But on returning home with the MBBS degree from the Latin American Medical School, the Cuban graduates found that instead of issuing them the RMP certificate, the PMDC demanding they clear National Examination Board (NEB) exam first, he said.

PMDC conducts the NEB test for foreign graduates to evaluate whether they received quality education and are capable to practice medicine in Pakistan.

Dr Ashfaq claimed that a large number of doctors who did their MBBS in China and Russia failed the NEB exam despite many attempts.

“On the other hand, over 80 per cent of Cuban graduates cleared all three parts of NEB in first step. Now PMDC is saying the Cuban graduates should repeat their house job,” he said.

“It is strange. We are allowed to practice in Cuba and over 30 countries, including Argentina, Spain, Venezuela and Chile, but not in Pakistan. Some of the 930 Cuban graduates have already left the country,” he said.

Senator Mushahid Hussain, who was instrumental in sending them to Cuba, says the PMDC is raising “bureaucratic hurdles” in their way.

“Cuba has the best medical system in the Third World,” he told Dawn. “Their medical system is even better than some developed countries. We are fortunate that we have Cuban graduates in Pakistan. Moreover, all the students were selected on merit so they are already very competent,” he said, fearing the PMDC hurdles would lose the country skilled and trained doctors.

“I will raise the issue in the Senate because ultimately it is the people of Pakistan who will suffer,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2015