The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has been suggested to remove the ‘conflict of interest’ clause from the PMC Act 2020 and to allow those regulated to be a part of the regulator and decision making of the body.
The commission was also suggested that to remove the requirement of passing MDCAT for admissions in medical as well as for the grant of medical license.
The proposals, as per statement of PMC, came after a meeting of Sindh Dental Colleges and a seminar of all Pakistan Dental Colleges in order to discuss the issues regarding the reducing number of admissions in dental colleges.
The statement said that a Sindh based medical association asked for the aforementioned amendments through a letter to the PMC authorities.
The statement clarified that the amendments in the act, however, was the absolute prerogative of the Parliament. It said that similar issues were raised by the Sindh Government on which a report was sought by the Ministry of Health from the Commission.
It added that the Commission has submitted a detailed report addressing all the concerns including that all Provinces and sectors have representation and presence at the Commission with nominated members from each Province as part of the National Academic Board.
It is the Academic Board that primarily formulates the standards of education including curriculum and examination standards including the MDCAT.
The detailed report also addressed the concerns raised by the Sindh Government regarding lowering the pass percentage of MDCAT which was determined by the Academic Board and the subsequent decisions of the larger bench of the Sindh High Court and previously of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. However to address these issues for future admissions the Commission will be seeking the proposals from the dental colleges in the upcoming seminar and forward these to the Academic Board for its consideration. It is pertinent that MDCAT 2021 was conducted in 25 centers across 22 cities nationally and in 6 international centers. Another misleading information being circulated by certain quarters is that the MDCAT curriculum ignores the curriculum of different provinces. The Commission has clarified to the Federal Government in its report that the Council issued a policy that the MDCAT curriculum to be formulated by the Academic Board must be a common curriculum to all HSSC Boards of all Provinces and regions. MDCAT curriculum is a public document and has been available since April 2021. It was prepared by the Academic Board which consists of highly respected senior educationists with the help of experts from the different provincial education boards and verified by the IBCC to ensure that it has no topics that are not covered in the curriculum of any provincial board. To address this concern the Commission has scheduled a National Conference on May 21, 2022 regarding the MDCAT curriculum and has invited education departments from all provinces and the federation to take part in the conference and assess the existing MDCAT Curriculum to point out any topics which may be beyond a provincial curriculum. Any such topic if found would be as per the Council policy decision would be removed from the MDCAT Curriculum.
