ISLAMABAD: A recent order by the dean of the Quaid-i-Azam Postgraduate Medical College (QPGMC) to the head of departments at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for self-evaluation for the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) has triggered a debate in the largest state-owned hospital in the federal capital.

Dr Taj, who is also the Pims dean, on the college’s letterhead asked the departments’ heads to fill out the self-evaluation forms and checklist of the FCPS disciplines available online. “If such information does not respond within three days, CPSP might reconsider our accreditation of FCPS [Fellow of College of Physicians and Surgeons] discipline and they will also not register our postgraduate trainee in the CPSP Programme,” he stated.

Association of University Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (AUPSP) Secretary General Dr Asad Noor, however, took exception to the matter and said the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) was sidelined even though it was the varsity’s job to oversee the academic procedures.

Dr Noor said SZABMU was founded in 2013 by an act of parliament, abolishing the Quaid-i-Azam medical college and vesting all responsibilities in SZABMU in the federal capital for postgraduate medical studies. “An amendment to the act in 2018 reaffirmed that the administrative control of Pims will stay with the civil servants of Pims while all academic activities, including teaching and induction of aspiring doctors, will be carried out by SZABMU,” he said, adding that the Federal Medical College (FMC) was designated as the teaching college of SZABMU with Pims, Polyclinic, and Federal General Hospital as teaching hospitals.

According to Dr Noor, the Federal Medical Teaching Institutions (FMTI) Repeal Act further strengthened the 2018 amendment with final arbitrary power delegated to the VC of SZABMU as the CEO. He said all government medical universities across the country followed the same model where the hospital administration was separate but subservient to the VC of the university who oversaw all academic proceedings.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Taj said that QPGMC has never been abolished. “The fact is that the Pims is a postgraduate department and no college has been attached to it. Despite that, we teach students of the FMC and that is why we have professors, associate professors and assistant professors at the hospital [Pims],” he said. He added that SZABMU was an autonomous body and doctors should not get confused.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2024