KARACHI, May 24: Sindh health minister Ehsan Ahmad has said that he has requested the federal health minister Abdul Malik Kasi to convene an inter-provincial meeting of ministers and secretaries of health to take steps for implementation of a unified teaching system for medical colleges.

Presiding over a meeting held in connection with the enforcement of new academic year of community-oriented medical education, Ahsan Ahmed said that as per WHO instructions, the experimental implementation of syllabus of initial two-year for community-oriented medical education has been completed while implementation of rest of the syllabus will also be completed.

The meeting deliberated upon new medical system integrating it with community-based services pursuant to instructions of WHO and its promulgation in all the four provinces.

On the occasion, the minister said that preparations have been finalised for implementation of this new system in the Dow Medical College on an experimental basis.

As an experiment, a two-year syllabus of new medical education system was adopted successfully in four medical colleges (one in each province) whereas experiment for adopting the remaining syllabus will soon be carried out.

Project Director Prof. D.S. Akram presented the details of new medical syllabus and informed the minister that successful experiment of imparting education to first and second professional MBBS under new system had already been performed.

The minister advised that before promulgating new medical syllabus it was necessary that experiment on the proposed course for third and fourth professional MBBS be tested first within four to six weeks and then it is formally adopted.

The meeting noted that a considerable amount would be required to promulgate the new education system. The minister said this new system would be introduced in DMC for the first time. The meeting reviewed the expenditures to be incurred on the process in detail and gave detailed instructions to the principal of DMC.

The new medical education system would be introduced in all the four provinces. In the first phase, King Edward College Lahore, Dow Medical College Karachi, and Khyber Medical College have been selected for the new course.

Ahsan Ahmad said that the new medical education system would be promulgated in all the rest of medical colleges in the second phase.—PPI