ISLAMABAD: Private medical colleges, which enjoyed a key role in the decision-making process of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) during the last few years, faced a tough time at a meeting with the new management of the council on Tuesday.

During the meeting, around 80 vice chancellors, deans and principals of private medical and dental colleges were asked to put their affairs in order to avoid action, a source privy to the meeting told Dawn on the condition of anonymity.

The new management committee of the PMDC, headed by retired Maj-Gen Azhar Kiyani, has been meeting the heads of colleges to streamline medical education. On October 2, the committee held a meeting with the heads of public sector medical institutions.

When contacted, Gen Kiyani told Dawn that he made it clear to the managements of the private medical colleges that the conflict of interest cannot be allowed in the PMDC.

PMDC management body says crackdown will be launched on institutions lacking facilities

“I would never take the responsibility of presiding over the management committee if I own a college. One of the college owners wanted to contest the election (for the PMDC council) and repeated his intention again and again during the meeting,” he said.

“I told them that they have made medical colleges a business. Most of the colleges don’t have hospitals though it is mandatory. As a result, they send their students to government hospitals for house job and even salary for the house job doctors comes from the national exchequer,” he said.

“If all the colleges open hospitals, there will be an addition of 28,000 beds in the country as at least a 300-bed hospital is mandatory for each medical college,” he said.

“I have told the representatives of the colleges that we will not compromise on the quality of education. I also said if there is any complaint against the PMDC officials, they should inform the members of the management committee in writing,” he said.

“Some colleges don’t have the faculty and the required equipment and on the eve of the inspection visit by the PMDC they get them on rent. Now we have decided to carry out snap visits to the colleges to check their faculty and equipment,” he said.

A source privy to the meeting on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that at the start of the meeting the representatives of the private colleges tried to pressure the PMDC management saying on the basis of their number, private colleges should be given more representation in the PMDC council.

“One of the college owners said they should also be made part of the PMDC council so that they can watch their interests,” he said.

On August 28, President Mamnoon Hussain promulgated the ‘Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Amendment Ordinance 2015’ after which the executive council of the PMDC was dissolved. Later, the current management committee, consisting of Gen Kiyani, Prof Abid Farooqi, Prof Nadeem Rizvi and others was formed.

The committee was asked to look after the day-to-day affairs of the organisation and hold the election to the executive council within 120 days.

The source said, “Gen Kiyani told the owners that a simple rule had been put in place for the election that the conflict of interest would not be allowed. He said his team was going to start a crackdown on all substandard medical colleges.

Though the new management committee has been constituted for a limited period, it will set very high standards of medical education and those unable to meet them would be closed. This would automatically bring down the number of private medical colleges.”

The principal of a private medical college, who also participated in the meeting, said the meeting continued in a pleasant environment for almost three hours when Mr Kiyani said he had intelligence-based report that each of the National Examination Board (NEB) exams was sold for Rs500 million.

It may be mentioned that NEB was introduced by the PMDC for those medical and dental practitioners who had graduated from abroad.

The practice was started after complaints that the foreign graduated doctors who studied in languages other than English faced problems in treating patients. However, the new management of the PMDC has suspended the NEB.

The principal quoted Gen Kiyani as saying that the PMDC was cooperating with agencies investigating the corruption allegations. “He made it clear to the participants of the meeting that some of the colleges would be closed.”

The principal also said the new management committee was violating its actual mandate of holding the election within 120 days. “I doubt that the election to the council will not be held within the stipulated period,” the principal told Dawn.

Another head of a college alleged that all the steps were being taken to tighten the grip of the government on medical institutions.

“According to the new act, a 35-member council will run the PMDC - 15 nominated by the government and only 20 elected through direct elections,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2015

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