11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 10: Retired Orthopaedic Professor Sulaiman A Khan on Saturday urged the government to take immediate action for improving medical education and training in Pakistan.

Delivering a lecture on "Medical Education, Economics & Orthopaedic Management" organised by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Karachi at PMA House, he stressed upon doctors to improve their scientific knowledge and be careful about the ethical aspects of their practice.

He expressed his dissatisfaction about the present state of Continuous Medical Education (CME) and said that institutes were not interested in it, while only a few centres, wards and units had any kind of structured CME programmes.

"In CPSP, monitoring and examination system is not satisfactory and one can pass the exams and get a fellowship without skill learning," he said.

He observed that there are many private hospitals performing orthopaedic surgery to make money instead of providing quality treatment to patients.

"In public hospitals, surgeons are referring patients to private clinics and not providing them care at the hospital. This is very sad and is unacceptable," he added.

He criticised doctors who publish their advertisements through the media to attract patients, and termed it unethical, demanding professional and regulatory bodies to take a stand on the issue.-PPI