ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has asked the medical practitioners to do refresher courses by December 2015 to avoid suspension of licences.

All over the world medical practitioners keep abreast of new medicines and methods of treatment being introduced in the medical field but in Pakistan majority of doctors ignore this fact.

Medical practitioners usually work in government hospitals in the morning and in private hospitals in the evening so they hardly get time to do research in their respective field.

A council official on the condition of anonymity said according to the PMDC (Amendment) Act 2012, continuing medical /dental education was mandatory for the medical practitioners.

Licence to practice can be given only to that medical/dental practitioner who has completed at least five credit hours per year as general practitioner and 10 credit hours per year as specialist.

Research work mandatory for renewal of doctors’ licences

“Participation in international/national conferences, guest speaker at international/national conferences is equivalent to eight credit hours, paper presentation (oral/ poster) in international/ national conferences is equivalent to four credit hours,” he said adding the council has also accredited a number of institutes in the country to conduct refresher courses for the doctors.

“Every year the PMDC used to advise medical practitioners to do refresher courses but it would go unheeded. In February, the council linked renewal of doctors’ licences with refresher courses and set June 30 as deadline for submitting the credit hours,” he said and added the date had now been extended until December this year.

It is pertinent to mention that every medical/dental practitioner has to renew licence after every five years. Those who do not renew licences face problem in getting jobs, going out of country. Moreover, if surgeon’s licence is not renewed he cannot conduct operations.

According to official statement issued by the council the amnesty shall be applicable to all those doctors who have already applied to the PMDC for licence or intend to apply this year.

The executive committee has further decided that applications of the institutions that want to get themselves accredited shall be entertained including universities and degree awarding institutes, postgraduate institutes and national level associations which are properly registered with the government of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

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