PMDC chief terms teaching hospitals’ condition `unsatisfactory’

By Our Staff Reporter

Islamabad:  Terming condition of certain teaching hospitals `unsatisfactory’, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s (PMDC) president Dr Shabbir Lehri remarked: “We want for such colleges to improve, instead of banning admissions and closing them.”

“I have been visiting the colleges myself as I know if an inspection team is sent, the colleges will be closed for violating the PMDC rules,” he added.

Giving details of his recent visit to Islamabad’s Rawal Institute of Health Sciences and Al-Nafees Medical College that he undertook along with the members of PMDC’s executive committee - Dr Amir Hussein Bandeshah and Farrukh Ijaz -, Dr Lehri said that he was shocked to see lack of facilities at the Rawal Institute.

“I was surprised to see that the college had a 3rd year class and yet its attached hospital only had 375 beds in violation of PMDC’s rules,” he deplored, explaining that if a medical college is allowed to admit 100 students each year, it has to establish a hospital that can accommodate 500 beds and treat patients on 100 of these beds free of charges.

Moreover, there was no cardiology department and MRI or CT scan facilities, while its operation theatres and recovery rooms did not have the equipment such as monitors, suction machines and other resuscitation equipment that help save patients recovering from surgery, he regretted, saying the college did not meet the PMDC’s criteria.

About Al-Nafees Medical College, Dr Lehri said this college was better equipped than the Rawal Institute. However, the bed occupancy rate at its teaching hospital was still low with only 96 patients admitted in the hospital.

He said the council will be making similar visits to other PMDC-recognized colleges and that this exercise was aimed at ensuring good standard of medical and dental education in the country.

According to Dr Lehri, most of the teaching hospitals had installed three times as many beds than should be put in one room to meet the requirement of 500 beds. “I have seen 10 beds in a room that should only have three beds and there should be some space between two beds,” he added.