ISLAMABAD: The National Medical and Dental Academic Board of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has decided not to withdraw the second part of National Licensing Exam (NLE) which is mandatory for granting licence to foreign graduates.

Moreover, it has also disagreed to lower the passing marks from 70pc to 50pc for the NLE.

Last week, foreign graduates held a protest in front of the PMC building and blocked both sides of the road.

The board said the purpose of the NLE was to test the competency, knowledge and skills of a graduate to ensure they are a ‘safe doctor’ before granting then the licence to treat patients independently. The NLE represents the basic skills that are mandatory for patient handling and management.

According to a statement, it is imperative that graduates are able to show at least 70pc of fundamental basic skills and competencies to ensure patient safety. Lowering the standard will be depriving patients of their fundamental right to be treated by a safe doctor.

“The Board was of the view that the majority of the foreign graduates are coming from countries where English is not the spoken language therefore, serious concerns exist as to the clinical training they have received in the absence of being able to communicate in the local language with doctors, medical staff at hospitals and patients or being aware of the medical terms ordinarily referred to in the local language. In addition, an absence of clinical training and mostly book education is a serious concern, and therefore, the NLE exam especially the Skills exam (NLE-2) is essential to ensure and certify that a foreign graduate has the necessary competency and skills to be a safe doctor,” it stated.

Moreover, the board also deliberated on the pass percentages of different international licensing exams being undertaken in different countries like the USMLE, which have a passing percentage of above 70pc.

“Keeping in view the above fact, the Board could not find any justification to lower the NLE-2 pass percentage from 70pc. After a detailed discussion, the board disagreed with lowering the pass percentage and decided to keep the current pass percentage at 70pc.

“The Board further decided to carry out an additional advance analysis to give more data to see if there is any justification to change the pass percentage in the future,” said the statement.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2022