PESHAWAR, Aug 1: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has demanded that full-time professors should be disallowed to do private practice so that they can concentrate on teaching.

“The professors should be compensated with a good salary and perks,” PMA president Dr Umer Ayub Khan said. In a statement issued here on Monday, he said the overall standard of medical education in the country was deteriorating because it was being treated as a part-time activity by faculty members.

Referring to a suggestion made by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Institutions recently about the role and authority of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, he said that most of the proposals tabled by the owners of the private medical colleges had already been made public.

He opposed jobs for those graduating from such private institutions that had been rejected by the PMDC as they lacked proper standard in terms of faculty and facilities. He said the PMA had suggested fresh registration of all the doctors working across the country.

Dr Khan also suggested that the PMDC, a regulatory body, should be restructured and its membership should be reduced. Members should be elected from each province from among registered practitioners and from public and private sector hospitals. Others should include DG health, surgeon-general, health secretaries of the four provinces, representatives from the Senate, National Assembly, Supreme Curt, CPSP, PMA and journalists, the press statement said.

The central council of the PMA has also suggested that its strength should be reduced from 63 to 32.