ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Association of Private Medical & Dental Institutions (PAMI) has recently urged the higher officials in a letter to save dental colleges from destruction.
President PAMI wrote a letter to President Islamic Republic of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Pakistan Imran Khan and Advisor to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan. The letter stated that the crisis in Punjab's dental colleges has intensified, and if the authorities do not notice again, then dental colleges in Punjab like Sindh will be destroyed.
Meanwhile, the Central PAMI meeting was held in which President PAMI Sindh informed the authorities about the destruction of dental colleges in Sindh last year. The private dental colleges of Sindh had to suffer the consequences. The Sindh government had to make the MDCAT score 100 per cent to save the dental colleges from destruction. Now the crisis in Punjab's dental colleges has amplified.
The meeting members expressed concern that if the destructive nature of private dental colleges didn't come into notice, billions would be lost, revenues would be diverted abroad, which would adversely affect Pakistan's economy, and dental colleges would be forced to close.
Expressing their concerns, the members at the meeting said that the medical sector in Pakistan was declining day by day, mainly due to the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) enacting new rules in the absence of all stakeholders.
Expressing further concern at the meeting, the executive council members said that in the current situation, if only dental is concerned, then at present there are almost no admissions in private dental colleges across the country, whereas last year also due to poor policies of PMC, five hundred seats of dental colleges of Sindh province could not be filled.
The PAMI meeting also urged more dental colleges to meet the shortage of doctors to save people from fake doctors.