ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has warned the management of Rahbar Medical and Dental College, Lahore, that its registration could be revoked if it failed to improve its infrastructure and teaching standards.

The warning came after a team of the PMDC led by its president Prof Dr Shabir Lahri and executive committee member Dr Amir Hussain Bandeshah paid a surprise visit to the college and its affiliated teaching hospital — the Rangers Hospital — on Friday.

The college was recognised by the Dr Asim Hussain-run PMDC management in 2012 and was supposed to train 100 students of MBBS every year. Currently, the third batch of students is under training at the college.

According to a statement issued on Friday, Dr Lahri found that the college had insufficient infrastructure, including an empty pathology lab that had no equipment. The dissection halls were empty, the library lacked relevant and updated books and study materials while the college building did not even have an auditorium, he noted.

The PMDC president observed that the affiliated teaching hospital had a capacity of only 350 beds, in lieu of the 500-bed lower cap required for the training of 100 students. At the time of inspection, there were no more than 50 patients at the hospital, while there were no teaching faculty present.

The radiology department also lacked necessary teaching equipment while there was no Clinicopathological Conference (CPC) room at the facility. CPC rooms are used to give presentations to students.

Dr Lahri said that the Rahbar Medical and Dental College was playing havoc with the lives of patients by producing untrained doctors.

He took notice of insufficient training facilities, saying that a team of inspectors would soon visit the college to decide its fate.

Dr Bandeshah told Dawn that he was shocked to see the facilities at the college and hospital. “If the college management does not take immediate remedial steps, we will have no choice but to close it,” he said.

“The hospital had no arrangement for the dissection of bodies. These students who never had the chance to learn and experiment on dead bodies will start experimenting on live patients after they become doctors,” he said.

“I doubt the college has the required strength of faculty members, so all these things will be investigated,” he said. “We have decided that medical colleges will either address the deficiencies or face closure because we will not tolerate a single medical college without proper facilities,” he warned.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2016