LAHORE, Aug 4: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said the King Edward Medical College has been upgraded as university, but the powers to affiliate public and private sector medical and dental colleges will remain
with the University of Health Sciences.
Speaking after inaugurating four new examination halls on the UHS campus on Wednesday, the CM averred that the KEMC had been granted university (degree awarding) status because the Punjab government had made this commitment in its early days. He also said all the commitments the government had made with the UHS would be fulfilled.
He said there was a great need to strengthen the UHS and the KEMU for the upgrade of the medical profession. He said the UHS had shown improvement in education during the last one year, which should be followed by other institutions. The power to affiliate institutions would remain with the UHS and not transferred to any other institution, he said.
After the emergence of private medical and dental colleges, he said there was a great need for an institution that should be run by strict officials. He said the transparent medical and dental examinations, being conducted by the UHS, would ensure churning out of qualified doctors.
Quality institutions promoted their own and country's name and credibility, he added. Referring to problems faced by the UHS management, the CM said every good initiative faced problems and difficulties, but determination helped clear all the hurdles.
He said he himself had faced a lot of problems when he started initiatives in the education sector, but with the passage of time all hurdles had been removed. He hoped that the UHS would earn more credibility and be referred as a credible institution of the Punjab government.
Admitting that the UHS management had shown improvements in one year of its existence, the CM announced a grant of Rs50 million for it. It is pertinent to mention that the CM, while speaking at another function at the Allama Iqbal Medical College, claimed that the government would strengthen both UHS and the KEMU, though both the institutions would face conflicts.
He said the UHS showed progress and now it was a challenge for the KEMU to strengthen itself and meet challenges. He pledged to strengthen the AIMC. Explaining other initiatives in the health sector, Pervaiz Elahi said the Punjab Rural Support Programme was yielding results.
Under this programme, he said, a cluster of three basic health units was given under the supervision of one doctor, who was being paid Rs30,000 monthly salary along with a vehicle.
He said the government had also constituted a task force to help it make improvements in the health sector at the tehsil level. He said specialist doctors would be given incentives to work at tehsil headquarters hospitals.
Similarly, he said, health facilities in district would be upgraded to ensure that patients were provided facilities at their doorsteps and burden on the teaching hospitals reduced.
The CM said the government also announced the regularization of doctors serving on a contract and enhanced FCPS-II trainees' stipend from Rs6,000 to Rs10,000 a month.
UHS vice-chancellor Prof Dr Malik Husain Mubashar briefed the CM on the improvements made by the university in the last one year. He said the UHS graduates would soon be getting exemption from PLAB examinations being conducted by the General Medical Council, UK.
He said the university had started offering PhD in basic sciences. Currently, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council required 162 PhDs in basic sciences in medical colleges in the Punjab against the availability of only three PhDs.
UHS board of governors chairman Prof Dr Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry presented a welcome address. Earlier, the CM inaugurated the examination halls and inspected two others where BDS final professional examination was in progress.
