ISLAMABAD: With the medical education industry already rife with criticisms and international organisations also making recommendations for improving the quality of medical education, another scandal is waiting to happen after 32 fresh applications for registering medical colleges have been received by the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS).

According to documents available with Dawn, 12 applications have been received from Punjab, six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, five each from Sindh and Balochistan, three from Islamabad and one from Gilgit-Baltistan.

NHS Secretary Ayub Sheikh claims the ministry only has the mandate to ensure the documents are complete and that the applications will then be sent to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) by June 30 to see if the colleges will be registered. He said the role of the ministry is like that of the post office.

Existing medical colleges already under criticism for quality of education, lack of faculty and infrastructure

After the establishment of the colleges, criticisms will be levelled against the concerned offices regarding flaws in the registration process, and the rules regarding faculty will also have to be relaxed as there is already a shortage of faculty members for existing colleges.

The only option left will be to reduce the number of teachers in each department and to allow faculty to teach subjects in which they do not specialise.

“We have 143 medical and dental colleges in Pakistan of which 92 are private and 51 are public. Pakistan is being criticised at international forums because of the large number of medical colleges and the poor quality of education. If these colleges are registered, the number of medical colleges will increase to 175,” an NHS official said.

He added that there were just 36 medical colleges in the UK and less than 150 in the US. “We do not have faculty members of several subjects including Anatomy, Physiology, Bio Chemistry,

Pharmacology, Forensic Medicine and others. In some of the colleges, almost half the seats are empty even though one teacher is usually registered with many colleges. Even the rules have been relaxes so that an assistant and associate professor is allowed to become dean if a professor is not available,” he said.

“There was once a demand for Pakistani doctors in other countries because they had good clinical experience, but now the hospitals affiliated with medical colleges do not have the required number of beds and patients which means medical graduates are not that experienced,” he said.

The official added that medical colleges are now run as businesses with the owners collecting Rs500 million in fees and save around Rs350 million each year. He said the number of colleges should be reduced and the quality of education improved.

“The much criticised previous PMDC management had imposed a moratorium on the registration of new colleges but the new management is now considering registering new colleges,” he said.

The NHS official said that existing colleges lack required infrastructure as well, especially material needed for practical assignments and that students have been studying practical subjects like theoretical ones as well.

PMDC President Dr Shabir Lehri said the council will be looking at the applications from July 1 till November 30, according to the council’s procedures.

“I believe the quality of education should be improved so that all the colleges which have applied will be inspected and if they fulfil the criteria, they will be registered. However, the inspection will be very strict and we will not register colleges which will be established for business purposes”, he said,

When asked about the shortage of faculty, he said PMDC has been developing a software due to which faculty members will not be able to register at more than one college.

“It will also be ensured that affiliated colleges have more than 500 beds so that students receive quality training. Those colleges which do not meet the requirements will be closed,” he said.

He explained that according to the current system, colleges needed to secure 750 of 1000 points in order to get registered.

“They are registered even if they do not get points for faculty but do manage to get 750 points over all. These rules will also be changed”, he said.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2016