KARACHI, Aug 16: Speakers at an international conference called for promoting community-oriented medical education to reduce the sufferings of the poor and adopt new techniques in the health sector.

They expressed these views on Monday on the first day of the four-day conference on "community-oriented medical and dental education," hosted by the Baqai Medical University at its premises. Sindh chief minister's advisor on health, Faisal Malik, presided over the first scientific session.

Foreign delegates, including Dr S M Bose and Dr Anant Parkash from India, Dr A K Azad Khan from Bangladesh, Dr M T M Jiffery and Dr Sarath Samarage from Sri Lanka, Prof of Nursing Ms Sarala Shrestha and Dr Ram K Shah from Nepal and Dr John Beasley from US, informed the participants of the moot about health systems adopted in their respective countries and exchanged their views with local experts.

Besides, some 13 delegates from different cities of the country also participated in the moot. Dr S M Bose said he brought massage of friendship and peace from India and suggested that both countries could solve their health problems through joint efforts.

Dr Jiffery emphasized on the training of health professionals and mutual cooperation among doctors and other professionals to provide better treatment to patients. He said the community-oriented medical education focuses on population groups as well as individuals.

Dr Sarala said total fertility rate in Nepal was 4.1 in women and cure birth rate was 10 in 1,000. "Contraceptive prevalence rate is 39 per cent and the rate of skilled birth attendants at deliveries is 11 per cent," she added.

Prof D S Akram, the WHO coordinator on COME, identified constraints in implementing it, which included lack of funds, logistics and manpower. Dr John said almost all health care was private in the US and only few government health centres were established.

Dr Zakaullah Khan also spoke on this occasion. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad in his massage read out at the inaugural session of the moot emphasized that the needs of the community could not be ignored, adding that it was imperative to change the present medical curriculum to bring it more in line with the requirements of the society.

The governor said the developing nations needed to evolve special strategies in order to approach the common man. Senior Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed, speaking on the occasion highlighted the role of private sector medical colleges in reforming the medical curricula for the fresh graduates, so that they could serve the community in a better way. He emphasized that the public sector had a major responsibility in this regard.

The acting WHO country representative to Pakistan, Dr Najibullah Mojaddedi, in his speech said that Pakistan had been making efforts over the last two decades to bring its system of medical education more in line with the requirements of local needs.

Dr Mojaddedi observed that the main challenge was to produce medical graduates who had the competence to take on the fundamental issues facing the health sector and could work as decision makers, skillful communicators, community leaders and efficient managers simultaneously.

He described the prospect as encouraging as Pakistan possessed sufficient human resources in its medical institutions. In his keynote address, the chancellor of the varsity, Prof F U Baqai, said that his institution was the first to be established in a rural peripheral area and had started community oriented medical education as early as 1988.

He maintained that 40 per cent of the country's population was living below the poverty line and it was imperative to reach them in order to provide t hem with educational, health and other basic facilities to further the pace of development in the country. Dr SM Rab (former Sindh health minister) Lt Gen Syed Azhar Ahmad, Prof Zahida Baqai and Prof Irshad Waheed also spoke on the occasion. -PPI/APP