PESHAWAR: The doctors appearing in Part-II of FCPS (medicine) examination have expressed concerns over the existing pattern and asked the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan to deal them at par with other specialties and take their exams like their colleagues in gynaecology/obstetrics.

“In the recently-held exam, only three candidates passed FCPS-II (medicine) because of the likes and dislikes of examiners. We request CPSP, the examining body, to change the pattern and save doctors from mental torture,” said a lady doctor, who has been appearing in the examination for the last eight years.

She said that it was a case of human rights violation and discrimination against FCPS-II (medicine) candidates by CPSP as it repeatedly failed them in the examination owing to outdated pattern. She said that there was no proper key of evaluation due to which favouritism marred the whole process.

The doctor said that most of the candidates had become mentally depressed and some of them resorted to quit the profession due to such injustices. “We have written a letter to authorities concerned,” she added.

CPSP regional director says candidates should submit an application for the purpose

Other candidates said that they wanted CPSP to bring reforms in FCPS-II (medicine) examination at par with that for gynaecology/obstetrics to end their perpetuating mental depression.

“The obsolete form of exam has been resulting in repeated failure of candidates obviously for no reasons other than lack of audit of examiners, who are extending favours to their near and dear ones,” said a candidate, who remained unsuccessful in the examination for five times in a row.

FCPS-II (medicine) candidates said that they should be evaluated through a mechanism as admissible to specialties of gynaecology/obstetrics. They said that examiners should be strictly instructed to follow the key and that might be ensured through meticulous audio/video recordings.

Furthermore, a break of at least one to two minutes in each short case should be given to candidates, they said. They added that command for clinical cases should be displayed outside the cabin modelled after Membership of Royal of College of Physicians (MRCP) stations so that candidates remained mentally prepared.

They said that presently verbal command was given by examiners by calling roll numbers etc that created panic. There should be marks of theory once candidate was declared successful in theory, they added.

They said that those reforms should be incorporated in the system from the upcoming clinical examination.

“Currently, FCPS-II (medicine) consists of short and long cases, which have become outdated and are done away with to ensure proper evaluation through Task Oriented Assessment of Clinical Skills (TOACS), which has been incorporated in clinical examinations by CPSP,” said candidates.

They said that FCPS-II (medicine) examination was solely based on examiners’ will without proper keys/parameters whereas exam of gynaecology consisted of extended TOACS each comprising of specific keys followed by examiners.

They said that in the current only three candidates out of 70 passed the exam, who belonged to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). They said that the ratio of success in medicine examination was less than three per cent while the same percentage in gynaecology/obstetric was more than 40 per cent.

CPSP regional director Prof Waqar Alam Jan told Dawn that they had recently introduced TOACS in gynaecology examination which had improved the success percentage.

“The candidates should submit an application and we will forward the same to CPSP president in Karachi. We are trying to bring reforms,” he said.

He said that currently CPSP was conducting examination in 85 specialties. “There is no favouritism in examination towards HMC candidates. The system is completely transparent,” said the CPSP regional director.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2025