PMC Approves First 'national Medical Scholarship Fund' For Deserving Students

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Feb, 2021 ) :Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on Sunday approved the formation of first 'National Medical Scholarship Fund', committing an amount of Rs 250 million for the purpose to support the high-merit deserving students.

Sharing details of the additional PMC council meeting held here today, PMC official said that the council allowed setting up scholarship fund as an independent entity, with an independent board under the supervision of the Council.

The fund will seek further grants from the Federal and provincial governments as well as the private sector. Annually, the fund will provide scholarships to students on need basis on obtaining admission to public or private medical colleges strictly on merit, he added.

The financial aid will be in the form of grants and loans or a mix of both. In the future, the scholarship fund, based on grants, will also look to deserving students for post-graduate studies and research in medical education.

The meeting noted that every year, hundreds of students with high merit are unable to enter medical programs due to their inability to pay fees for private education. The council believed these high-merit students from the underprivileged class represent the future of healthcare and need to be supported.

The council approved the launch of the first Higher Medical Specialist Register and the Higher Dental Specialist Register. All Medical and Dental practitioners, having acquired higher specialist qualifications, will be included in the Registers which will be publically available.

The meeting also approved policy allowing licensed doctors who are either not practicing or are based outside Pakistan to simply notify the Commission of their non-practicing status in Pakistan to stop the renewal and any other charges being levied on their licenses.

The council approved the decisions of the Disciplinary Committee which entail imposing penalties including heavy fines for medical and dental practitioners working without a valid license, as well as suspending and cancelling licenses on account of negligence and placing privileges under review.

The council approved the PMC (Enforcement) Regulations 2021. The Regulations provide for the disciplinary adjudication by the PMC Disciplinary Committee of complaints of negligence, harassment and other violations of code of ethics by licensed practitioners.

Major and minor penalties defined including cancellation and suspension of licenses and imposition of fines with the first-time inclusion of a penalty requiring a practitioner to do free-of-cost service in the public sector and low income regions.

The council has approved the launch, from March 2021, of the fully automated online application system allowing medical graduates and licensed practitioners to apply for licenses, renewals and addition of qualifications online along with an online payment methodology without visit to any PMC offices or banks.

The council noted with concern that the pre-existing database of licensed practitioners only had CNICs of less than 35% licensed practitioners in their record. The council approved the launch, in March 2021, of the Digital License Profile project, allowing practitioners to create their digital profile online and, upon biometric verification, update their status and profile online with automated verification processes.

The Digital License Profile will enable the Commission to issue licenses to practitioners immediately and in a digital format. It will also secure a practitioner's data and identity as well as enable a public mobile application for any person to verify the status of a medical practitioner.

The council has taken serious note of complaints received regarding colleges affiliated with ISRA University. It has been reported that the colleges in Islamabad and Karachi affiliated with ISRA University have been forcibly taken over with intervention due to some dispute as to ownership and control of the colleges and the university.

Complaints have been received from students of these colleges that the recent exams and results of professional exams held in January-February have also been adversely affected by the university due to this ongoing dispute.

The council appointed the Member Examination as a special investigation officer to immediately issue notices to the colleges and submit a report on the situation after physical inspection of the colleges and hearing the management of the colleges.

Meanwhile the council directed that any student who may have failed in the professional exams held by the University can file a request for rechecking of their examination and the same be rechecked by an independent public university to ensure the integrity of the results.

The council has also directed the Authority to contact Higher Education Commission (HEC) and inform them of the situation with ISRA University.

The council has taken notice of a group of foreign students who had graduated before the assessment of foreign colleges and post assessment their colleges were placed in List B requiring them to return to the country they graduated to obtain a license.

A special one-time pathway has been approved for these graduates to replace the requirement for a foreign license with license eligibility enabling them to start their house jobs in Pakistan.

As per policy about one-time licensing pathway for students who had graduated prior to January 2021 from a foreign college contained in List B, students will be processed for licensing with requirements included they will be required to show license eligibility in the country from where they graduated if they have not acquired a license from such country, they qualify the NLE, upon qualification of NLE, they will be granted Provisional License, they will be required to then complete a house job in Pakistan while upon completion of house job, they will be granted a full license.

The council made it clear that all persons having graduated from a List B college and who have been granted provisional licenses earlier based on the Green List will be required to appear in the first NLE and qualify the same to retain the validity of their provisional license. If such person fails to qualify the first NLE, the provisional license will be suspended till such time as they qualify the NLE.

Similarly, if any person who falls in such category and a graduate from their college was granted a provisional license on the basis of the Green List previously, will be granted a provisional license to start.