Pakistan Medical & Dental Council always gets lot of bad publicity. Its incompetence and inefficiency to set its own house in order, not having a transparent elections of its executive  always remains under criticism. However, justice demands that whenever it does something good, it must be commended, appreciated and highlighted as well. It is unfortunate that it does not provide such opportunities to commend and appreciate its functioning quite frequently.

The recent decision of the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council regarding re-certification and registration of healthcare professionals linking it with mandatory Continuing Medical Education (CME) Credit Points is a welcome step and all those who initiated this idea and are involved in its implementation deserve to be congratulated. Such a move was long overdue. It is thus heartening that at last the PM&DC Executive took this important decision and has also started implementing it. It has many advantages. Firstly it will bring more participants to the medical conferences, seminars, symposia as well as Workshops which are accredited for CME Credit Points. Secondly it will go a long way in professional capacity building of the healthcare professionals and thirdly it will also help improve patient care.

The PM&DC Executive  Committee also deserve to be commended for accepting suggestions we had made earlier ((Pulse International Vol.16 No.4 February 15, 2015) and now all the medical universities besides some other   institutions, professional specialty organizations have been authorized to  award CME Credit Points after fulfilling the required formalities. It will not only ensure that the burden of work on the PM&DEC is greatly reduced as it has lot of other important issues to look into,  this decentralization will also assure proper implementation of this initiative. However, there is a word of caution for every one.

This excellent initiative should not be used either by the PM&DC or Medical Universities as well as Professional specialty organizations to make money. This will defeat its very purpose.  While the PM&DC can ask for some fee for accreditation, those organizing these academic activities should make sure that the Registration Fee for the participants is kept as low as possible. Secondly, the attendance of the participants must be ensured and recorded. Thirdly every participant of these training courses, conferences, workshops must be asked to fill up the Feed Back Form. This will help the organizers to improve the quality of the courses, workshops, conference in future. The CME Credit Point Certificates should only be provided to those who mark their attendance and provide feed back.  The organizers of these academic activities should also keep proper record of participants etc., and make sure that no one gets a CME Credit Points Certificate without actually participating and attending these meetings. It is up to these institutions, professional specialty organizations to safeguard their credibility and one hop they will not disappoint all those concerned.

REFERENCE

1. A commendable initiative by PM&DC regarding CME should be supported but not wasted due to various reasons. Pulse International Vol.16 No.4 February 15-28, 2015.