ISLAMABAD:The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) has continued issuing registration certificates to doctors across the country through its online portal service.
According to an official of PM&DC, the Council had launched this interactive online portal to facilitate doctors throughout the country.
He said that a large number of registration certificates had been issued while PMDC also started issuing good-standing certificates and renewals.
He said that taking up all the relevant matters and affairs, the PM&DC started its registration portal as a priority after making all necessary arrangements for the transition from PMC to PMDC.
“We invite all the local graduates, who are waiting for their permanent registration for a long time to apply online for registration.” These graduates waited for quite a long time to get themselves registered but failed due to the rigid rules imposed by past PMC, he added.
He said that one of the objectives of PM&DC was to make the registration portal in a way that was seamless to use, easy to navigate, and must be user-friendly.
He said that the council has also issued permanent registration certificates to Pakistani doctors in large number, without the requirement of the National Licensing Examination (NLE).
This exam was mandatory earlier as per the previous law of the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) as the local graduates had to appear and pass the NLE exam before getting their permanent registration, even after graduation from Pakistani medical and dental colleges, he added.
He said that in this regard, several protests and demonstrations were held by different doctor forums and organizations at different levels and the past government appealed repeatedly to withdraw the said black law.
Previously, as per PMC law, the NLE was undertaken by doctors who graduated from Pakistan’s approved medical and dental colleges which were highly criticized by the doctors’ community throughout the country.
He said that keeping in view the demand of the doctors and on the direction of the Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel, this step was taken after signing the concerned legislation by the President.
He added that PM&DC right after its promulgation ensured that the registration portal should be accurate enough and must be able to secure the storage of confidential information of doctors and to develop a system that provides a secure payment system for application fees and develop a system for tracking and managing applications.