KARACHI, May 25: Speakers at a conference here on Friday stressed the need for improving the postgraduate medical education and training programmes in the country so that international recognition of local medicine practitioners could be made possible.

The conference was organised by the Aga Khan University. President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP) Prof Zafarullah Chaudhry, who was the chief guest at the inaugural session, said that postgraduate medical education was yet to ensure satisfactory health care in Pakistan in future.

The CPSP president said that tremendous strides had been made all over the country in postgraduate medical education over the past 25 years, while the CPSP had provided the benchmark that was applied uniformly on a national level.

Prof Chaudhry said that uniform induction criteria, transparent assessment and feedback, and regular quality assurance were the elements contributing towards the success of any educational programme.

“Time has come to concentrate on raising the quality of our training programmes further so that they can gain international recognition,” he noted, saying that such targets could be met with the cooperation of all physicians in the country.

In his keynote address, Dr Charles Leduc from the United Arab Emirates University laid out the principles of quality assurance in postgraduate medical education.

He presented practical steps that institutions need to incorporate in their training programmes, in order to ensure high quality of education.

Prof Mohammad Khurshid, Dean, AKU Medical College, highlighted his university’s efforts towards maintaining and improving standards of the postgraduate medical education, and mentioned that the Aga Khan University (AKU) was extending support to the institutions in Kenya and other East African countries.

Prof Mohammad Daud Khan, Vice President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan (CPSP), Dr Farhat Abbas, Chief Operating Officer of the AKUH, Dr Ahmed Badar of the Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad and Dr Nadir Ali Syed of the AKU also spoke at the session.