EDITORIAL
SCOPE OF MEDICAL
COLLEGES IN PRIVATE SECTOR
A.J. KHAN SI
Principal Frontier Medical College, Abbottabad, Founding Principal Ayub
Medical College Abbottabad,Former Principal Bolan Medical College, Quetta,
Former Director General Health, Pakistan, Former President Pakistan Medical
& Dental Council
Medical profession is still the most sought after
profession, there are thousands of bright students who pass their F.Sc
examination in First Division and desire to join medical colleges but are
unable to get admission in government medical colleges. There is a great
shortage of doctors in the country. Hundreds of young students go abroad for
medical education, costing huge sum of foreign exchange to the families and to
the government spending 5 to 7 years and obtaining degrees which are not
recognized in Pakistan. Therefore to fulfill the demand of the public, and to
overcome the shortage of doctors in the country and to save the valuable
foreign exchange, private sector medical colleges are much needed in Pakistan.
However, establishment of medical colleges is very expensive and difficult.
PMDC is very firm in implementing its rules and regulations. Those colleges
which fulfill the laid down requirement of PMDC, help in overcoming the
shortage of doctors in the country and provide much needed health care to the
population. Such medical colleges are much appreciated by the public and by the
govt. Such private sector medical colleges have great future and some of them
may become famous and outstanding like the private sector medical colleges in
the USA.
Medicine is the noblest of
professions. Doctors deal with suffering humanity, patients come with pain,
agony and disability, after kind and humble efforts of medical professionals
and the mercy of Allah they return healthy and comfortable. In response doctors
achieve respect, prayers and blessings.
Perhaps that
is why Medicine is still the most sought after profession. After passing
matriculation examination, the best students securing highest marks select
premedical group in F.Sc to join a medical college.
In Pakistan, every
year, about 30,000 students, pass F.Sc premedical examination in First
Division, securing over 60% marks and apply to get admission in medical
colleges. About 4000 get admission in public sector medical colleges and the
remaining about 26,000 do not succeed though they are very keen to join this
profession and serve the ailing humanity. Out of these unsuccessful candidates
every year about 800 who can afford, go abroad to Russia and other former
Soviet republics, China, Philippines and Caribbean states for medical education
and over Rs. 4 billions of foreign exchange of Pakistan is spent on these
students. For about a year they have to learn the local language and in most
cases these medical educational institutions are not recognized by Pakistan
Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) with the result that they are not able to
practice in Pakistan and the time and money of the students are wasted.
Establishment of standard medical colleges in Pakistan in private sector
benefits such Pakistani students, saves the Government of Pakistan’s valuable foreign
exchange and helps to overcome the shortage of doctors in the country.
The number of
doctors registered in Pakistan at present is about 110,000. It is estimated
that about 25000 Pakistani doctors are working abroad. Leaving 85000 for a
population of about 150 millions making a ratio of one doctor for 1764 persons.
The doctor population ratio/recommended for developing countries like Pakistan
by W.H.O is 1 doctor for 1,000 populations. At this ratio the requirement of
doctors in Pakistan for 150 million population is 150000 doctors. This shows
that we require another about 65, 000 doctors in the country to fulfill our own
needs. A shortage which appears very difficult for the public sector medical
colleges to overcome.
Until recently
government had undertaken the responsibility of training doctors almost free of
cost. It is free of cost when it is considered that against the expenditure of
about Rs. 6 millions which is incurred on training of one doctor, the
government has been charging a nominal tuition fee of about Rs. 20, 000 to
50,000 in five years.
Private Sector
Medical Colleges:
Realizing the importance of
training more doctors, the government increased the number of seats in medical
colleges in seventies. This resulted in over crowding which was affecting the
standard of medical education, therefore, on advice of Pakistan Medical &
Dental Council (PMDC) the number of seats in medical colleges had to be reduced
and the private sector was invited to assist in training of doctors.
Initially, the Aga
Khan Medical College was established in private sector. It has done well and
earned good reputation for its standard of medical education. Some more medical
colleges were started. A few of them not coming up to the standards laid down
by the PMDC had to be closed. PMDC is the controlling authority to see that the
standard of medical education is maintained in the country.
Some of the best
medical colleges in the world are in the USA and from among those the top
medical colleges are in the private sector, like Harvard, Johns Hopkins,
Stanford, Yale, Mayo, etc. every student desires to study at these medical
colleges as against in the government sector medical colleges. Inspite of the
fact that the education at these private medical colleges is four to five time
more expansive,
Similarly, every
doctor wishes to do post-graduation study and consider it a great honour to
work in these private sector medical colleges and their hospitals. Harvard was
established 222 years ago, may be after a few years medical colleges in private
sector in Pakistan will also attain such great heights. The first private
sector medical college the Aga Khan Medical College is an example.
It is hoped that
one day in future like in the USA students wishing to become doctors in
Pakistan will also prefer to receive education in private sector medical
colleges inspite of the fact that education in government medical colleges is
more or less free or at nominal cost.
In the general
education sector, the private sector schools & colleges are far ahead in
imparting quality education as compared to government sector schools and
colleges. This is due to the fact that private sector general education started
over 100 years ago. A time will come in near future that private sector medical
colleges like Harvard will be most sought after.
The government
medical colleges train about 4000 doctors each year and out of a total of 85000
doctors in the country, about 2000 die each year, about 500 leave the country
and go to practice abroad and about 200 particularly lady doctors stop
practicing the profession. Only about 1300 doctors are added each year to over
all total. In this way it is just not possible to overcome the shortage of
65000 doctors even during the next 50 years.
The only
alternative is to encourage the private sector to come forward and train and
educate doctors. In his budget speech in 1984 Dr. Mahboobul Haq had suggested
that the public sector cannot afford to establish more medical colleges to
train doctors. He further stressed that no new medical college should be opened
by the government and the teaching of medical doctors should be left to the
private sector.
Considering the
importance of overcoming the shortage of doctors in the country, the provincial
governments have established 2 new medical colleges in N.W.F.P, 3 new medical
colleges in Punjab and one new medical college in Sindh in the last three
years.
Medical Colleges In Pakistan:
At present in Pakistan,
there are 32 Medical Colleges, recognized by PMDC. Sixteen in Government sector
and 16 in the private sector. The list of recognized medical colleges is given
in the table below:
|
Province |
Public Sector |
Private Sector |
|
Punjab |
1.
KE
Lahore |
1.
Lahore
MC, Lahore |
|
2.
FJ
Lahore |
2.
Fatima
Memorial,Lhr |
|
|
3.
Allama
Iqbal, Lahore |
3.
Islamic
Int. R,Pindi |
|
|
4.
Nishtar,
Multan |
4. Foundation, R,Pindi |
|
|
5.
Qauid-e-Azam,
B,pur |
|
|
|
6.
Punjab,
Faisalabad |
|
|
|
7.
Rawalpindi,
R,Pindi |
|
|
|
8.
Army,
Rawalpindi |
|
|
Sindh
|
1.
Dow,
Karachi |
1.
Agha
Khan, Karachi |
|
2.
Sindh,
Karachi |
2.
Hamdard,
Karachi |
|
|
3.
Liaquat,
Hyderabad |
3.
Mohammad,
Mirpur |
|
|
4.
Chandka,
Larkana |
4.
Isra,
Hyderabad |
|
|
5.
Nawabshah
|
5.
Jinnah, Karachi |
|
|
6.
Karachi
MDC |
6.
Sir
Syed, Karachi |
|
|
|
7.
Zia-ud-Din,
Karachi |
|
|
|
8. Baqai, Karachi |
|
NWFP
|
1.
Ayub
Abbottabad |
1.
Frontier,
Abbottabad |
|
2.
Khyber,
Peshawar |
2.
Kabir,
Peshawar |
|
|
|
3.
Women,
Abbottabad |
|
Baluc-histan
|
1.
Bolan,
Quetta |
|
Islam-abad
|
|
1. Shifa Int |
The above are the Medical
colleges recognized by PMDC. There are some other medical colleges which are
not recognized by PMDC. There were yet some other medical colleges in the
private sector, which have been closed down under direction of PMDC.
PMDC is the
statutory body of the Government responsible for maintaining high standard of
medical education in the country under the PMDC Ordinance of 1962.
PMDC has
prepared a standard curriculum for medical education which is followed in all
medical colleges in Pakistan. It has also prepared guidelines proposing the
number of teachers and other staff required in each subject based on the number
of admissions in a college each year.
PMDC also provides
guidelines regarding the space for the college, its administration, basic
departments and hospitals. The space means lecturer halls, laboratories,
demonstration rooms, dissection hall, the library, the museums and hostels and
of course the equipment needed in each department. For the hospital, there
should be at least 5 beds per admission in one year.
PMDC Inspection
teams inspect all medical colleges from time to time to see that the
requirements are fulfilled and standard of medical education is up to the mark.
If PMDC finds
deficiencies, they advise the colleges to improve and if colleges fail to
improve PMDC recommends to the provincial governments to close such medical
colleges.
In the last few
years, on PMDC’s recommendations following medical colleges have been closed:
1.
King Fahad Medical College,
2.
Vohra Medical College,
3.
Ravi Medical College,
4.
Bhutta Medical College,
5.
Margalla Medical College,
6.
Imam Hussain Medical College,
7.
Rajput Medical College,
8.
Khattak Medical College,
There are some other
medical colleges which have yet not fulfilled the PMDC laid down requirements,
therefore, these have yet not been recognized by PMDC. In addition, some more
new medical colleges have sprung up, which have yet not been inspected by PMDC
for recognition as they do not fulfill the basic laid down criteria.
Medical Colleges
are not like colleges of general education both in government and private
sector. Most medical colleges are larger than many public sector universities.
In addition to imparting education to students to become doctors, these medical
colleges both in the public and private sector establish hospitals which help
the government in overcoming the shortage of health facilities in the country.
Many commercial
entrepreneurs also jumped into the field considering it a profitable business,
but they soon realized the difficulties and just went back or their colleges
had to be closed. Establishment of a medical college is a very difficult
venture. Not only that huge sum of money is required to establish the hospital,
the medical faculty is very much is short supply in the country. Almost half of
our total number of medical teachers are employed abroad mostly in the Middle
East and also in other countries. What to say of private sector medical colleges,
many government medical colleges are short of medical faculty. To overcome this
shortage it is possible that medical teachers will be needed to be imported
from abroad and this will not be easy.
The medical
colleges which are already established in the public or private sector, most of
them have gone through the initial difficult period and they have built their
hospitals and obtained reasonable faculty, therefore, it is likely that they
will go on, as it has been seen that most of these medical colleges have made
good progress towards excellence, they have established their own good
hospitals, acquired good faculty, providing very good education However, for
new medical colleges it will be extremely difficult to fulfill the basic
requirements laid down by PMDC.
Address for Correspondence: A.J. Khan SI, Principal Frontier Medical College, Abbottabad.