PAKISTAN Medical Commission, successor of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council – PMDC) has taken a number of decisions that would go a long way in improving medical and dental education and practice in the country.
Apart from launching Higher Specialist Register and suggesting penalties for practising without valid license, it has, for the first time in history, established a fund of Rs250 million so that deserving students of both public and private sector medical and dental colleges could get loans and grants.
Medical education has become so expensive that no one from lower and middle classes can dream to become a doctor and as a result otherwise eligible and brilliant students are deprived of the opportunity to join the medical profession.
The institution of the fund is a light of hope for such students and their families and a step towards affording equal opportunities to all to acquire knowledge.
The amount of the fund is small and the PMC should devise ways and means, in consultation with federal and provincial governments, to enrich it.
Private medical hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, laboratories, doctors and specialists are earning hugely and they ought to contribute to the fund as part of their societal obligations. If an industrialist or an investor can undertake welfare ventures under corporate social responsibility, why not those earning millions through medical practices.
The issue of practising without a license or with a fake license has assumed greater significance in the backdrop of what happened to pilots and the aviation industry of Pakistan, therefore, the steps towards scrutiny of licenses are appreciable and should be implemented at a fast pace.
It is also a matter of concern that CNICs of 65% of health practitioners were missing and the initiative of online digital profiling would make the situation clear. Bio-metric verification of health practitioners is the need of the hour.
