ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Friday increased the annual fee of medical college from Rs642,000 to Rs800,000 which will be revised each year according to the rate of inflation.

However, there will be a centralised induction policy for students and colleges will not be allowed to take aptitude tests. Colleges will be fined Rs20 million if it is proved that they received donations from students and their annual intake of students will be reduced by 10 students as a penalty.

Private medical colleges increase their fee time and again and are also accused of taking donations from students at the time of admissions. The Supreme Court took suo moto notice of this in 2010 and it was decided that students will be charged Rs550,000 per year and that the fee will be increased by 7pc each year.

Council introduces central induction policy, says colleges will be fined Rs20 million for accepting donations from students

The fee was increased to Rs642,000 and private medical colleges did not make good on a number of promises they had made including setting aside 50pc of their beds for free treatment and some facilities for students. The council, on the other hand, received complaints that colleges demand donations at the time of admissions.

Last year, the PMDC introduced a central induction system for students in order to stop the demands for donations, but colleges refused to implement the system and obtained stay orders from courts across the country.

This year, colleges were demanding to increase the fee up to Rs1.3 million and started negotiations in this regard with the PMDC.

Some members of the council, including Dr Sania Nishtar, were against the negotiations and suggested the council should impose its decision instead. She resigned from the council as a member last month.

Talking to Dawn, PMDC President Dr Shabbir Lehri said the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) had suggested the council hold the negotiations and address the issue for good.

“Minister NHS Saira Afzal Tarar participated in the meeting on Friday. It has been decided that from this year on, a centralised induction policy will be implemented. Colleges will be fined Rs20 million for receiving donations and its annual intake of students will also be reduced by 10pc,” he said.

Dr Lehri said that in addition to the annual fee of Rs642,000 colleges were also demanding money for a number of other reasons such as annual events, convocation fee, clinical fee etc and that they will no longer be allowed to charge other fees.

An official of the council said the PMDC should say in its notification that the fee increase will be implemented from the next session and that colleges should not implement the increase on already enrolled students.

Colleges sought stay orders from different courts against the PMDC’s decision for a fee increase and the council in turn wrote to the chief justice of Pakistan, asking him to order all the courts to decide the cases expeditiously or vacate the stay orders in order to stop private medical colleges from charging exorbitant fees.

In the letter dated July 24, 2017 and available with Dawn, the council has said that last year, it promulgated regulations regarding admissions, house jobs and internships but the colleges filed petitions before the courts. The courts have granted stay orders in favour of the colleges due to which the regulations could not be implemented last year.

“Now the new admissions are proceeding in all the medical/dental colleges and due to these orders it is apprehended that these regulations will not be implemented even this year. This problem has resultant in another hardship and students are under mental agony and torture,” the letter says.

An official of council said that the letter sent to Supreme Court forced the medical colleges to negotiate and finalize the fee.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2017