The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has made important announcements about accreditation standards, the National Licencing Examination (NLE), Merit Calculation, and the accommodation of A-Level candidates whose results will be announced in February 2022.
These decisions were taken by the National Medical and Dental Academic Board (NMDAB) in a meeting on Sunday.
The board has recommended that the maximum work hours for postgraduate students be fixed at 80 hours a week, subject to different disciplines of study.
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The council has also approved a phased approach to achieving new standards, in which the underperforming institutes will be given reasonable deadlines for improvements.
The institutes will be graded ‘A+’, ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ during inspections. Those with Cs will be given a timeframe to achieve better accreditation standards.
Immediate and urgent inspections will be carried out according to the 2019 accreditation standards for undergraduate medical and dental colleges.
The PMC has decided that the NLE will be an examination to test a candidate’s ability to function as a safe practitioner, and not to re-examine him/her in theory subjects.
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It has asked the council to make a sample NLE examination available online within 10 days.
The council also approved a special window from 10 January 2022 to 10 February 2022 for colleges to accommodate the candidates who take the A-Level examinations in October 2021 and will have the results announced in February 2022.
The specific methodology will be notified as an addendum to the PMC Medical and Dental Undergraduate Education (Admission, Curriculum, and Conduct) Regulations 2021.
