KARACHI, Feb 21: The foundation-stone laying ceremony of a regional centre building of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan will be held at Hyderabad on March 3.

The construction work would be completed in a period of one year at a cost of Rs 10 million. The centre is aimed at training 500 candidates of FCPS examinations in Hyderabad.

CPSP president Prof M Sultan Farooqui told Dawn that the college had already established 13 regional centres in major cities of the country, providing state-of-the art self-learning facilities at the doorsteps of the candidates having cleared FCPS-I examinations.

He said that the CPSP had acquired a plot in the premises of Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Institute of Psychiatry, Hyderabad, for the centre. The centre would go along way to promote postgraduate medical education and solving the problems of postgraduate medical trainees of the interior of Sindh.

The foundation stone of the new centre would be laid down by the Governor of Sindh Dr Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan, Mr Farooqui added, saying that the facilities proposed for the centre included library, learning resource centre, computer laboratories with internet access and workshop and examination halls.

He said that CPSP was fully cognizant of the need of quality in medical education and had been taking all measures to improve its training programmes through constant review, analysis and revisions of its postgraduate training and assessment systems.

At present the number of CPSP trainees throughout the country was around 6857 in 53 disciplines, including 1233 those of MCPS or DCPS, while the number of CPSP accredited institutes was 117, with 1104 supervisors.

Referring to the acceptability of CPSP fellows and members, he said that at the international front, the college enjoys the recognition of sister institutions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sudan and the Royal College of UK and Ireland. The Higher Education Commission, Islamabad, has also equated CPSP fellowship with PhD, he added.