LAHORE, Feb 4: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has introduced “Basic and Advanced Life Support” as compulsory courses in MBBS final year in Punjab this year.

The varsity says no medical student will be awarded degree without completing training (certification) in these essential courses prior to final professional examination.

A press release issued on Friday said the UHS had also started a training programme for the faculty of its affiliated colleges in collaboration with the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council of Ireland (PECCI), the Institute of Learning Emergency Medicine (ILEM), the National Ambulance Service College (NASC), and the Ireland and Disaster Relief by Irish and Pakistani (DRIP), Ireland.

These institutions will run a series of workshops to develop an instructor faculty within all medical colleges for these internationally accredited courses.

In this context a seven-day workshop is being conducted at the UHS, which will conclude on Sunday (tomorrow). More than 140 faculty members from the UHS’s affiliated institutions are participating in the workshop.

Regarding these courses, ILEM Project Director Dr Khurram Shahzad said all courses were designed and delivered with a hands-on approach. The students would be encouraged to practice and demonstrate both skills and knowledge necessary to save lives, he said, adding that the basic objective was to prevent death from emergencies.

He further said doctors still seemed to be expected to learn resuscitation skills in the clinical settings, when there was little opportunity to correct poor techniques. Once students became house officers, their time for training was limited.

“Given this situation and the fact that many junior doctors are not competent in carrying out effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), training in basic and advanced life support should become standardised and mandatory component of undergraduate curriculum in medical colleges,” he said.

UHS Controller of Examinations Dr Junaid Sarfaraz Khan said the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council had now made “Basic and Advanced Life Support” courses as an essential component of house job training of young doctors.

He added that the UHS had made these courses part of the MBBS final year assessment keeping in view the best international clinical practices.

“Basic first aid and resuscitation skills should be taught to all professional healthcare students as both patients and lay public have an inherent expectation they (doctors) should know what to do in an emergency irrespective of the point they have reached in their training,” he argued. Basic Life Support is the level of medical care which is used for patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries until the patient can be given full medical care at hospital. It is generally used in the pre-hospital setting and can be provided without medical equipment in contrast to the provision of Advanced Life Support which involves the use of drugs or invasive skills.

The training in these courses is based on the guidelines which outline algorithms for the management of a number of conditions such as cardiac arrest, choking and drowning.