ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has directed medical universities to submit details of internal and external examiners to the PMDC, according to a press release issued on Monday.

A PMDC official, requesting anonymity, said the PMDC had received a number of complaints regarding a faculty members and examiners working in up to three or more universities, at a time.

“They are listed as faculty members in more than one university and such faculty members cannot do justice to their job as teachers. The students suffer and the quality of medical education is compromised,” he said.

The official said that initially the PMDC wrote letters to the universities in an attempt to register faculty members with the council as permanent employees. However, it was soon realised that some faculty members may choose to join another university so such an attempt would be futile.

PMDC decides doctors without continuing medical/dental education credits would not be registered

“To address the problem, it has been decided that details of internal and external examiners would be submitted to the PMDC prior to exams.

The lists submitted by universities would be compared to ensure that only one examiner works at each university,” he said.

He said the decision would improve the quality of education and only those universities which can afford fulltime faculty members would remain functional.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by PMDC President Professor Dr Masood Hameed Khan. He talked about his commitment towards strengthening medical universities and standardising their functioning for the improvement of medical education, the press release said.

The PMDC directed all universities to establish Continuing Medical/Dental Education (CME/CDE) cells at their respective institutions. It was decided that no new doctor would be registered without CME/CDE credit points.

Many doctors in Pakistan, do not educate themselves about new research in their field.

The PMDC has decided to ensure that doctors attend CME/CDE conferences, seminars and workshops to ensure that they are up to date with the developments in their fields.

Dr Masood said negligence towards education standards at universities and affiliated colleges would not be tolerated.

He said strict disciplinary action would be taken against the institutions failing to comply with the PMDC’s orders.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2015

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