ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Friday made it clear that students who have obtained Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degrees from Cuba have to clear the National Examination Board (NEB) test.

However, the doctors would be exempted from house job if they provided the proof of completing the mandatory initial hospital service in Cuba.

Since 2007, about 1,000 Pakistani students have gone to Cuba on scholarships announced by the Cuban government.

The HEC supervised the process to award the scholarships.

Three months back the first batch of 350 medical graduates returned to Pakistan after obtaining the MBBS degrees and completing their house job.

However, the PMDC informed the doctors that they have to clear the NEB test and complete the one-year house job to get licence for practice.

The PMDC management decided that all students shall appear in the NEB examination conducted by the PMDC.

Registrar PMDC Dr Raja Amjad Mehmood said the doctors returned from Cuba would be exempted from house job if the relevant Cuban authority certified that they had completed the five-year medical education and spent the sixth year doing house job.

There is no question of exempting the graduates from the NEB examination, he added.

“As per the PMDC rules, only those medical and dental graduates who have major postgraduate qualifications like diploma of American Board, FRCS (UK) or equivalent are exempted from the NEB examination,” he said.

The purpose of NEB examination, which was started in 1990, was to examine the competency and skills of medical and dental graduates to maintain the minimum standards of medical and dental education, he said.

Dr Mehmood added that the PMDC was facilitating all the Cuban graduates through the HEC so that they could get the eligibility certificates.

A refresher course has been scheduled for all the foreign graduates so that they could qualify in the NEB examination, he maintained.

Published in Dawn, May 31th, 2014