I AM a medical graduate from LUMHS Jamshoro applying for medical post graduation / specialisation in USA. I want to bring some important issues to the government’s notice.

The year of graduation is a very important criterion in addition to the USMLE exams for specialisation in USA. The more recent the graduation, the better chances of doctors acquiring a residency and being accepted in a specialisation programme.

The problem I want to highlight is that Pakistani medical schools award MBBS degree and mention the year of graduation that is a year earlier than the date of graduation.

The reason for this is that our universities confer degrees before the completion of the mandatory one-year house job. In the rest of the world including India the graduation date is after they have completed their house job.

Simply put, despite graduating in the same year, Pakistani doctors have a one year earlier date for no fault which makes it difficult for them to compete.

The competition is becoming tougher and the opportunities are shrinking. As things stand today, Pakistani medical graduates have to compete with some of the brightest minds in the world to specialise in any medical field and acquire work experience in USA.

I request the government to resolve this issue as the future of young doctors of this country is at stake.

Dr Asadullah Nasir

Virginia, USA

Published in Dawn March 8th , 2015

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