Doctors’ registration remains elusive after PMDC dissolution

KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association and the Young Doctors Association (YDA) Sindh recently held a press conference, noting that the doctors’ community had been facing considerable difficulty in registering and renewing their licenses after the dissolution of the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC). The event was attended  by Secretary-General, PMA Centre, Dr S M Qaisar Sajjad and Vice-Presidents, YDA Sindh, Dr Waris Ali Jakhrani.

While addressing to the Press, Dr S M Qaisar Sajjad said that newly graduated medical students had been facing problems in getting their mandatory certificates for house job as there was no regional office for students in the Sindh province. He said that the hospitals’ administrations were not allowing medical students to start their house job without a certificate.

Qaiser informed that general practitioners and others were also facing problems for registration and renewal after the dissolution of the PMDC. He said that the PMC office was in Islamabad, and no one was available in Sindh to guide young doctors and others on how to complete formalities.

“The PMA is gravely concerned about the dissolution of the PMDC and its replacement by a new institution called the PMC through an ordinance which has distributed the medical community working all over Pakistan," Qaiser Sajjad said.

Dr Waris Ali Jakhrani said that the YDA would not accept the new PMC ordinance and urged the federal government to review this decision. He said that the PMDC had registered doctors, so their registration would stand cancelled after the promulgation of the new ordinance.

House officers, PGs, general practitioners, and others were facing great hardship. The PMC failed to establish regional offices in all the provinces as all affairs continue to be operated from Islamabad, Jakhrani noted.

Dr Jakhrani said that the federal government had further strengthened private medical colleges through the PMC ordinance and destroyed the medical education system.

Waris said that the YDA Sindh categorically rejected the PMC ordinance and demands the Prime Minister to review the decision.

-MN Report