PMDC still unable to rationalise fees of medical colleges

ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has failed to rationalise fees of private medical and dental colleges, a committee formed by it will again discuss the matter this week.

Former caretaker health minister Dr Nadeem Jan said he had taken steps to rationalise the fees but his tenure ended before the desired result was achieved.

On the other hand, an official of PMDC said that the three-member committee headed by Prof Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan was looking into the matter and its next meeting will be held on May 8 (Wednesday). Medical and dental colleges have increased their annual fees up to Rs800,000 for the ongoing session that started in February.

Talking to , Dr Jan said he did his best to reduce the fees of the colleges. “In fact, the committee had finalised the fees at less than Rs2 million per annum but I rejected it and insisted on further reducing it. However, the committee could not reach any decision till the expiry of my tenure,” he said.

Official says committee looking into matterand will hold next meeting on May 8

A senior official of the PMDC, whishing not to be quoted, said that the academic council had suggested the amount of the fees but it was rejected by the council with a direction to reconsider it.

“Unfortunately, Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI) increased the fees on its own. The committee with Prof Dr Amjad Siraj Memon and Barrister Sultan Mansoor as members held a meeting with PAMI representatives but the latter refused to reduce the fees saying tariffs of electricity and other utility services had gone up and they cannot reduce the fees,” he said.

“The next meeting of the committee is scheduled on Wednesday in which we will push PAMI to reduce the fee. However, the PMDC Act has not empowered us [PMDC] to take any action if PAMI refuses to reduce the fees,” he said.

In January this year, PMDC had sought justification from the colleges for the sudden increase in fees.

Moreover, the council had reminded colleges that they were bound to submit annual financial statements for the previous year and had to inform it about the increase in fees three months prior to the new session.

A letter written to heads of institutions, available with Dawn, stated: “All medical and dental colleges shall, at least three months prior to initiating the annual admissions process, publicly declare the fixed tuition and all ancillary fee structure on an annual basis for the entire programme of study in which the students are seeking enrolment and the fee structure shall not be enhanced during the students’ period of enrolment at the college.”

As per the documents available with Dawn, the annual fee of Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College Lahore for MBBS was around Rs1.8 million but from the current session the college has increased it to over Rs2.6 million.

HBS Medical and Dental College Islamabad is charging over Rs2.2 million as compared to Rs1.55 million the last year. Foundation University Medical College announced the fee of Rs1.6 million while last year it had charged Rs1.58 million from Pakistani students.

CMH Lahore Medical and Dental College and Institute of Dentistry Lahore (MBBS) has been charging Rs2.2 million compared to Rs1.75 million last year.

Shalamar Medical and Dental College is charging Rs2.1 million compared to Rs1.65 million for last year. Islamabad Medical and Dental College had fixed its fee at Rs1.6 million last year but it is now charging Rs2.1 million.

Shifa College of Medicine Islamabad has increased its fees from Rs1.4 million to Rs1.7 million for MBBS.

The Aga Khan University Karachi was charging Rs2.6 million for the last year but has announced annual fees of over Rs3 million for the current year for its MBBS programme.

Fazaia Medical College Islamabad has increased the fee from about Rs1.4 million to Rs1.6 million while Rehman Medical College Peshawar has increased the fee from Rs1.5 million to Rs1.7 million.