ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has recently been suggested removing the ‘conflict of interest’ clause from the PMC Act 2020 and allowing those restrained to be a part of the regulator and decision making of the body.
The commission was also proposed to remove the MDCAT requirement for medical school admissions and the granting of a medical licence.
According to PMC, the ideas came following a meeting of Sindh's dental colleges and a conference of all Pakistan dental colleges to explore the challenges surrounding the declining number of dental college admissions.
According to the statement, a Sindh-based medical association requested the amendments in a letter to the PMC authorities.
The statement clarified, however, that the act's modifications were the sole prerogative of Parliament. Similar concerns were expressed by the Sindh government, prompting the Ministry of Health to seek a report from the Commission.
It went on to say that the Commission had submitted a detailed report that addressed all of the concerns, including the fact that all provinces and sectors have representation and presence at the Commission, with nominated representatives from each province serving on the National Academic Board.
The Academic Board is in charge of developing educational standards, such as 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 centres across 22 cities nationally and in 6 international centres. 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 the MDCAT curriculum on May 21, 2022, and has invited education departments from all provinces and the federation to attend and assess the existing MDCAT Curriculum, pointing out any topics that may be beyond the scope of a provincial curriculum. If such a topic is discovered, it will be removed from the MDCAT Curriculum, as per Council policy.
