Medical education
I read with interest the letter by Mr. Nasar (15.01.08) on Medical Education. I wholeheartedly agree with the views expressed by him.
I visit Bangladesh every two or three years and each time I see yet another signboard for another medical college. I am reliably informed that there are as many as fifteen medical colleges in and around Dhaka, and there are others in the districts. I have never been inside of any of these institutions, though some of them are owned and governed by my friends and contemporaries. I cannot help feeling that these institutions are primarily run as business concerns and have nothing to do with medical education of international standards.
The main responsibility for the quality of medical education lies with the Bangladesh General Medical Council (BDGMC) and I just wonder whether they have set any minimum standards for opening such institution(s).
I was a medical student in the early sixties and your elderly readers would remember that in those days there were two types of registered medical practitioners (a) LMFs or Licentiates, those who qualified from the medical schools of which there were four in the then East Pakistan (Bangladesh), (b) MBBS or the graduates who qualified from the medical colleges. In order to attain parity, the govt. of the day very wisely abolished the medical schools and upgraded them into medical colleges and LMFs were given the opportunity to become MBBS, by being admitted to the short course.
I am not aware that the BDGMC or the govt. has any policy of maintaining parity or a minimum standard required of the students passing out from these "private medical colleges"
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