LAHORE, Sept 2: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has taken some ‘unprecedented and historic steps’ in its revised Regulations 2012 primarily in order to facilitate the private medical and dental colleges and American nationals regarding entrance test and admissions.

Notified on Aug 29, the ‘Regulations for admission to MBBS/BDS courses and conditions for house job/internship/foundation year’ shall extend to all medical and dental colleges in the country recognised under the PMDC Ordinance 1962 and all admissions to their MBBS/BDS courses shall be governed by these regulations.

The PMDC has declared that the revised regulations shall be applicable with effect from 2012 without undermining the process of entrance test and admissions to public and private sector medical colleges in progress in the three provinces -- Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh besides Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has already completed this process.

In Regulations 2012 (a copy is also available with Dawn), the PMDC has for the first time introduced MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) with minimum aggregate score of 24 and abolished condition of ‘equivalence from IBCC to FSc/HSSC/Intermediate’.

“The candidates shall have to appear in the provincial entry test or in lieu of the entry test of the admission authority, the candidates are required to have passed SAT-II score with minimum 550 marks in each of the three subjects of which two have to be Biology and Chemistry or MCAT with minimum aggregate score of 24 and equivalence to FSc/HSSC/Intermediate from IBCC shall not be required,” the new regulations say.

The MCAT exam is administered in US and Canada. The PMDC’s decision of abolishing the condition of IBCC equivalence would seriously affect the process to determine merit in the absence of the IBCC certification, the experts say.

In another ‘unmatched’ decision, the PMDC has put an additional burden of ‘exit assessment exam’ on fresh medical graduates creating for them more complications with regard to getting registration from the council. The revised regulations say, “All persons graduating after December 2012 shall have to qualify an exit assessment exam of house job/internship/foundation year through any PMDC recognised university. Core competencies for this examination shall be as specified by the council and the university shall assess the students accordingly. No conversion of provincial registration into full registration shall be done without this requirement.”

The council has brought another `interesting’ amendment to regulations in favour of the private medical colleges declaring that the entrance test shall be valid for ‘that year’ in the public sector medical and dental colleges and same shall be valid for ‘three years’ in the private colleges all over the country, showing council’s soft corner for the private sector institutions.

In another attempt to facilitate the private colleges to exceed from the allocated seats, the PMDC has declared that in lieu of dropout students/vacant seats in the first two years, the institution may admit students in subsequent admission so as to maintain total admission strength allowed to the institution in the first two years.

The PMDC further clarified the said portion of regulations stating, “If a college is allowed admission of 100 seats annually but only 80 students remain including retained failures or only that many were admitted then the college can admit 120 students in the next year and this will make 200 students in these two years. Vacancies in the third year cannot be filled in a new admission.”

The PMDC has also increased fee for foreign admissions from $10,000 to $15,000 declaring that the fee can be in foreign currency and shall not exceed more than $20,000 per annum all inclusive and not even one dollar over this will be charged on any pretext.

Similarly, Rs100,000 tuition fee has also been increased for local students desiring admissions to private medical colleges. “No medical or dental institution training for MBBS/BDS in the private sector shall charge tuition fee more than Rs600,000 per annum per student. This fee shall exclude university examination fee, taxes, hostel fee, transport fee and the one-time admission fee which shall not be more than Rs50,000. Copies of all receipts shall be submitted to the PMDC,” the council says.

In the new Regulations, the council has increased seats in medical and dental colleges from 10 per cent to 15 per cent for foreign admissions/self-finance. “If foreign admission/self-finance seats are left vacant in any college, a local student can be admitted on such seat subject to fulfillment of eligibility criteria for admission as given in regulations.”

The revised regulations 2012 have also extended help to the A-level students on the constant protests and complaints of ‘out-of-course questions’ in the entrance test.

“At least two paper setters from A-level teaching institutions shall be co-opted in the paper setting team by the provincial/NTS authorities.”

The PMDC has made ‘drastic’ amendments in favour of private institutions, ignoring the impression created by several senior faculty members of the government medical institutions and medical organisations that the council has turned to be a ‘Private Medical and Dental Council.’