A team of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has completed its inspection visit to the Nawaz Sharif Medical College (NSMC) and the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH) on Monday last.
NSMC Principal Prof Dr Ateeg told Dawn that the inspection team made a longstanding visit to the college where the team held interactive sessions with the college faculty, staff and administration to inquire about the various facilities and shortcomings in the college and its teaching hospital [ABSTH].
Adding he said the team would submit its inspection report which might high-light the deficiencies of faculty and other facilities after which the college administration would be given a time period to overcome such deficiencies.
However, he expressed satisfaction upon the [long overdue] inspection visit.
The visit had been due since 2011 as the college had initially been allowed for the admission of 50 students in 2009 by the PMDC; however in 2010 the college administration on the direction of the provincial health department had exceeded its enrollment up to 100 students.
In 2011, the PMDC issued a warning to the NSMC management for enrolling 100 students and initially allowed 50 students and asked the college admin to arrange an inspection visit for the approval of the remaining 50 seats.Later on in 2016-17, the PMDC had imposed annual fine on the NSMC for enrolling excessive students and charged a fine of around Rs25 million for all previous years.
It is learnt that the college had deposited an amount of Rs2.2m for 2017-18 and the amount might increase to Rs4.2m for 2018-19.
The principal NSMC said the PMDC team had made the inspection of the college as per the requirements for 100 seats which was also a good omen as after approval of the PMDC for 100 seats the college would also get rid of the annual fine being imposed by the regulator.
Though the PMDC`s team had been stopped from doing further inspection of at least 50 medical colleges across the country in the executive meeting of the council on Monday the last (the same day when the team visited NSMC), the NSMC principal said the inspection of his medical college would hopefully stay valid and its [visit] report would be considered as per rules.
Meanwhile, an inspection team of the University of Health and Sciences (UHS) has visited the ABSTH for the accreditation of postgraduate degree of Masters of Surgery (MS) in neurosurgery for students of the NSMC.
The inspection report will now be presented in the next meeting of the syndicate of UHS for approval as earlier the UHS had accredited the Masters of Medicine in five different disciplines at NSMC including that of gynaecology, surgery, medicine, ENT and paediatrics.
