ISLAMABAD: Pushed by dissatisfied students and parents, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided to categorise the country’s 132 medical colleges according to the quality of education they provide.

Though clinical orientation session starts from the very first year of medical education, PMDC sources said that there were complaints that many colleges could not offer that fully because the hospitals they were affiliated to are not equipped with MRI and CT Scan machines.

“We asked the 132 colleges to provide us details of the facilities they offer to their students but most of them just wrote back that they fulfill all the requirements of PMDC,” one source said.

“It has now been decided to seek the details with proof. Those colleges who fail to provide the details will be put in B category,” he added.

Registrar PMDC Dr Shaista Faisal confirmed the decision to Dawn and said the medical education regulatory body is upgrading the bed-strength of the teaching hospital for a medical college to be put in A category.

While replying to a question she said that ranking of the colleges both in private and public sectors will soon be put on the website of the PMDC.

According to the official A category colleges will be allowed to increase fee by seven per cent as per rules, but not those in the B category.

In the past a medical college needed to be affiliated with a 150-bed hospital for registration. The colleges even had the option to scatter the 150-bed condition to more than one hospital. However, now affiliation to a 300-bed hospital has been made mandatory.

“Medical colleges linked to hospitals having 500 or more beds, latest facilities for treatment, functional MRI and CT Scan in its Radiology Department, registered with Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority and teaching faculty as per PMDC criteria and Nursing College will be placed in A category,” said Dr Faisal.

“Colleges which fail to provide details about the facilities, and not affiliated to a 500-bed hospital, will be placed in B category,” she said.

However, dental colleges affiliated to 60-bed hospital and meeting other requirements, will be placed in A category. All others will be placed in B category,” she added.

She said that the PMDC Executive Committee took these decisions after detailed deliberations in order to improve the working and enhance the standards of medical and dental institutions. These measures will also benefit the patients as it will produce safe and professionally trained doctors.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2015

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