Pakistan Medical Graduates
Fates of Pakistani medical graduates in US in doubts
Islamabad: Doctors, who graduated from Pakistan, might not be able to work in the United States (US) after Jan 2024 as the country has failed to meet the criteria of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) and the deadline is approaching fast, media reports said on Monday.
Defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had applied for the WFME accreditation and also invited its delegation to visit Pakistan but in 2019, the PMDC was dissolved and Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) was established. Subsequently, the WFME visit was postponed, reports The Dawn.
In order to get accreditation from the WFME, Pakistan has time till January 2024 and the current Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) Act at present does not meet the criteria to get recognition from the world body.
The PMC, on the other hand, claimed that it had “formally initiated the application process for the recognition” and the entire process, including on-site visit by the WFME, is expected to take 12 to 15 months, which is well within the time frame of Jan 2024, the Pakistani newspaper reported.
According to a senior official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), around 25pc of the doctors working in the US have foreign qualifications.
“US’s Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), after realising that the quality of foreign graduates was deteriorating due to mushroom growth of private-for-profit colleges, on Sept 21, 2011, announced that after January 2023 graduates of only those countries having recognition from WFME will be allowed to appear in United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE),” the official told the newspaper, adding that the deadline was later extended to January 2024 due to Covid-19.
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