Uganda: Address Mediocre Doctors At University-Entry Level
TEDITORIAL
The ministry of health is planning to subject fresh graduates of the bachelor of medicine and surgery course from several universities to an examination before they can start on their internship as they bid to become doctors.
The idea behind this bold move is to prevent half-baked graduates from practising medicine, which would pose a danger to patients' lives. To that extent, the ministry has a point.
However, that is where our sympathy for their position stops. Our own position is that you cannot wait for students to go through five years of academic rigour, including the financial implications thereof, and then tell them they are not good enough for the medical profession.
The safety net needs to be cast at the university-entry level. Candidates who are not good enough to undertake this course should be identified here and advised to try other academic programmes.
Part of the problem is that government has allowed many private institutions to start medical schools, and yet lacks the will or the capacity to police standards. Some of these institutions are more concerned about the students' fees than the standard of doctors; so, they will accept mediocre students as long as they can pay their way.
Ugandan doctors used to be highly regarded across the world because of the good training they got at Makerere University Medical School. While it's good that more medical schools have sprung up, and thus more doctors produced, quantity must go hand in hand with quality.
If Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) can't be trusted to have the last word on who can and who can't manage the human medicine programme, let the ministry consider introducing a university pre-entry examination similar to the one currently being used for lawyers.
However, even after making certain that only the right candidates enroll, it's still incumbent on the ministry of education and sports (through National Council for Higher Education), and ministry of health, to monitor medical schools and ensure that students there are getting the right training, under the supervision of the right professors, using the right facilities.
Gwokto La'Kitgum
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"Even a small dog can piss on a tall building" Jim Hightower
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