PESHAWAR: The College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan is accrediting dermatology ward of Khyber Teaching Hospital for postgraduate training of doctors, according to officials.

“It would be the third ward in the entire province to be lawfully authorised for specialisation in skin. The CPSP inspection team will arrive on May 9 for which all formalities have been fulfilled,” Prof Noorul Iman, the dean of Khyber Medical College and Khyber Teaching Hospital, told Dawn.

He said that it would be the third unit in the province to start training of doctors in dermatology. He added that there were two other units -- one each at Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex -- that had been imparting training to doctors in dermatology for the last seven and two years, respectively.

CPSP team to inspect dermatology unit of hospital today

The KTH had more than 25 wards recognised for postgraduate courses of doctors in medicines, surgery, orthopedics, paeds surgery, eye, gynecology, psychiatry, cardiology, ENT and pulmonology, etc but dermatology remained unrecognised owing to lack of supervisor.

According to CPSP’s criteria, any unit is required to have Fellow of College of Physicians and Surgeons (FCPS) qualified doctors to provide postgraduate training to others.

“We have the services of a qualified FCPS dermatologist, who fulfils the required criteria on the basis of which we have applied for recognition. After the recognition, we would be able to induct four trainee medical officers twice a year,” said Prof Noor.

He said that there was extreme shortage of dermatologists in the province. He said that there were only four qualified dermatologists and all of them were based in Peshawar. He added that recognition of units for training enabled the hospitals to produce specialists in respective specialties.

“We have acquired latest equipment, supervisor and 22-bed ward. We are hopeful that CPSP would give us go-ahead for induction of trainees. Presently, we have one dermatologist, who has completed his requirement to act as supervisor. Another one will complete the same very soon and we would be inducting 16 trainees per year,” said Prof Noor.

He said that one supervisor was entitled to take eight doctors for training per year. He said that they were ready to get recognised the urology and neurosurgery units very soon. He added that dermatology, the most neglected medical discipline, needed more attention because number of patients was increasing.

Dr Irfanullah, the assistant professor at dermatology unit, completed FCPS in 2010. He was qualified to act as supervisor by January 2017. Since then, the efforts were in progress, including two letters and meetings with CPSP officials by dean that resulted in an inspection for recognition.

The 1250-bed KTH, started in late 80s, receives about 100 patients per day with different skin ailments. It didn’t have qualified dermatologist till 2012 due to which there was no training to produce specialists.

Officials at the hospital said that health secretary dispatched a letter to CPSP two years ago to grant accreditation to six more teaching hospitals to upgrade the less-developed specialties including dermatology. “Owing to lack of seats, many doctors go to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi for training in dermatology,” they said.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2018