ISLAMABAD, May 6: President College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) Dr Sultan Farooqi on Tuesday announced initiation of fellowship in health management to supplement government’s effort to revitalise the health sector.

He was speaking at the 38th Convocation of CPSP at Convention Centre to award FCPS and MCPS diplomas to the successful candidates of Islamabad/Rawalpindi and NWFP region.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan distributed medals and diplomas among the recipients. The diplomas were to be distributed by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, who was chief guest on the occasion, but he left the venue early due to his preoccupation. The diplomas were awarded to 650 fellows.

Sultan Farooqi said the college had now been recognized as one of the major postgraduate medical education centres in the region with an international reputation in postgraduate education and training.

The Joint Committee for Higher Medical Training of England had recently recognized FCPS (fellow college of physicians and surgeons) at par with the MRCP (UK), US Boards of Internal Medicine and FRCP, Canada, for the purpose of entry in the specialists register maintained by the General Medical Council (UK), the president said.

He told the convocation that the college had established 12 regional centres in the country and three international centres functioning one each at Kathmandu (Nepal), Jeddah and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).

CPSP caters to about 5500 students, who appear annually in FCPS I and II disciplines. It has also maintained the quality of 4,264 FCPS II trainees registered with its Research Monitoring and Training Centre. These trainees were spread not only all over the country but also in Nepal, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia and were in 47 disciplines.

He said the CPSP had produced 4,866 fellows and 5,328 members till 2002 thus bringing the total specialists number to 10,194.