ISLAMABAD: In response to allegations by private medical and dental colleges that Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has been handed over to inexperienced persons, the PMC on Monday claimed that it will ensure students got quality education.

Moreover, the commission warned that any college not recognising PMC or its regulations or standards would in essence seek disaffiliation of its recognition.

On June 19, Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (Pami) in a statement claimed that it will issue a whitepaper against PMC on Tuesday (today).

Pami President Dr Chaudhary Abdul Rehman demanded that the admission regulations 2021 should be suspended and irrelevant persons removed from the PMC.

He alleged that the PMC was handed over to inexperienced persons and announced a boycott of its meeting scheduled to be held on June 26. The statement claimed that the National Licensing Exam (NLE) was not acceptable to colleges and students.

NLE is an exam which every medical student has to pass before starting practice.

However, PMC on Monday showed astonishment that Pami did not bother to share its concerns with the commission.

“Commission wishes to clarify that no direct written communication has been received from any private medical or dental college registered with PMC regarding their intent not to abide by the regulations, their refusal to undertake admissions or their refusal to accept the accreditation standards which are currently under consideration with the Academic Board, which has vice chancellors, deans, senior faculty of both public and private medical and dental colleges, HEC and CPSP as its members,” said the PMC in a statement.

“PMC recognises individual medical and dental colleges which it has inspected and accredited and shall only be communicating with colleges individually.”

Though PMC’s doors are always open for any of its registered and accredited colleges to share their individual views that will always be responded to as part of a standard dialogue between a regulator and its registered entities, any college which does not wish to recognise PMC or its regulations or standards would in essence seek disaffiliation of its recognition with PMC and that is the right of any private business, it added.“PMC is determined to continue its work towards improving the educational standards of medical and dental programmes in Pakistan with the singular objective of educating and licensing competent and properly qualified doctors and dentists. These steps are necessary to ensure that only the highest standards of healthcare are made available to all the citizens which are in line with global best practices. While PMC will work with existing colleges to improve their standards, if any college fails to proactively improve its standards and deliver the quality of education required, PMC will not hesitate to take necessary action,” it said.

The statement claimed that thousands of students pay millions of rupees to private colleges in consideration of receiving promised quality education and it was PMC’s responsibility to ensure these students and their right to quality education is protected and delivered.

WHO expert advisory group

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appointed Prof Hasan Abbas Zaheer to its Advisory Group on Blood Regulation, Availability and Safety.

The advisory group comprises 25 global blood transfusion experts.

Prof Zaheer is the pioneer of blood safety reforms in Pakistan initiated in 2008 by the federal health ministry. He served as the national coordinator of the German government-funded Safe Blood Transfusion Programme under the Ministry of Health since its inception in 2010 till his retirement last year.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2021