The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) updated medical college and teaching hospital accreditation requirements.

In addition, standards for the MBBS programme, medical graduate competencies, and medical house employment have been decided upon for 2024.

For the past three months, PMDC claims to have been working on improving medical and dental standards. Following council and academic board approval, these criteria will be put into effect.

On Thursday, PMDC President Prof. Dr. Rizwan Taj informed the media that undergraduate medical college accreditation requirements will have significant functions that will ultimately help students and the healthcare sector.

"All of these medical dentistry accreditation criteria, rules, and regulations have been submitted to the Academic Board Committee for consideration and approval following a great deal of laborious work. High standards for the caliber of instruction offered by medical institutions, including those related to faculty credentials, curriculum content, instructional strategies, facilities, and resources, will be established by these accrediting requirements, he stated.

According to Dr. Taj, these criteria will shield students from wasting their time and money on poor programmes by guaranteeing that they obtain a top-notch education that satisfies precise quality and rigour requirements.

These certified criteria will allow medical colleges to give students the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed in medicine, the speaker said.

We also prepared drafts for accreditation standards for undergraduate dental education at dental colleges, inspection proformas for 50 BDS admissions, accreditation standards at dental clinical teaching facilities and hospitals, competencies of BDS graduates and dental surgeons, and 2024 BDS curriculum guidelines. These certified criteria will allow medical colleges to give students the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed in medicine, the speaker said.

We also prepared drafts for accreditation standards for undergraduate dental education at dental colleges, inspection proformas for 50 BDS admissions, accreditation standards at dental clinical teaching facilities and hospitals, competencies of BDS graduates and dental surgeons, and 2024 BDS curriculum guidelines.

Dental institutions are able to continue offering top-notch educational programmes, thanks in large part to accreditation standards. These requirements will address clinical training facilities, teaching strategies, curriculum content, and faculty qualifications.

These will aid in the creation of curricula that would help students become competent in areas such as communication, patient care, critical thinking, and ethical decision-making, thereby preparing them for jobs in dentistry, he added. Creating competent, well-rounded dental practitioners who would meet patients' demands for oral health and make valuable contributions to the dental profession was the ultimate goal in designing these criteria.

According to him, PMDC has also drafted regulations regarding PMDC's powers and functions, licencing, examinations, PMDC finance, rules regarding the National Medical Scholarship Fund and Trust, amendments to admission regulations, and student registration through 2024.