FAISALABAD, April 13: Concrete efforts should be made both by the government and the private sector to help control the brain drain of medical specialists from the country.

College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) head Dr Sultan Farooqi said this at the inaugural ceremony of the Seventh Regional Learning Centre of CPSP, which was completed at a cost of Rs20 million here at the Punjab Medical College on Thursday.

He explained the evolution of CPSP in the backdrop of the scanty healthcare facilities available in Pakistan immediately after independence.

He said a majority of doctors did not return after completion of their studies because of lucrative opportunities available for their professional growth abroad.

To check the trend, he said, the idea for the CPSP’s establishment was introduced on the pattern of the Royal College of England. He said the college was first housed in Karachi.

Later, keeping in view the problems of trainee specialists, CPSP devised a policy of accrediting various training medical institutions in the country, so that the trainees could be placed closer to their homes during their training period. This policy in turn helped various medical institutions upgrade their faculties and facilities, he said, and added that CPSP now had 119 accredited institutions all over the country.

He said that still candidates faced problems of enrolment for FCPS-I examinations and shortage of learning facilities.

About the policy to establish regional learning centres, he said the first liaison office was created at the King Edward Medical College Lahore in 1983. However, he added, now regional centres were operating in the federal as well as all provincial capitals.

He said the CPSP now offers 53 specialties and diplomas in 18 disciplines. Recently the college has introduced two new postgraduate diplomas, one in Healthcare System Management and the other in Health profession Education, he said and added that at the moment there were 8,214 registered trainees in 119 CPSP approved medical institutions. They were completing their fellowship under the supervision of 1,174 supervisors in more than 1,000 units/departments throughout the country, he added.

He said under a national postgraduate training programme to provide financial assistance to every FCPS-II trainee working either in public or private sector institution throughout the training period would receive a minimum stipend of Rs10,000 per month.

Professor Dr A.G Rehan, Punjab Medical College principal and Dr abdul Hafeez Chaudhry, Director, Regional Centre CPSP, also spoke.