ISLAMABAD: A new policy on admissions to medical colleges and doctors` house jobs has been published in the Gazette of Pakistan in order to end private medical colleges` monopoly on student admissions and the practice of forcing students to pay donations to colleges.

Under the policy, available with Dawn, medical and dental colleges can no longer violate merit by favouring students in the name of aptitude tests.

Remuneration for house jobs for students from private colleges has also been made equivalent to that of students from public sector colleges.

A Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) official, who was not authorised to speak on the record, said private medical colleges used to receive bribes in the name of donations for admissions.

`Every year, students who could not pay donations would not get admissions even though they had higher marks than students who would get admissions,` the PMDC official said.He added: `In the past, we used to get complaints but it was not possible for us to take action against the private medical colleges because there was no law or policy to check it. Finally, however, the new policy has been published in the Gazette of Pakistan and it has now become possible to eradicate the culture of donations in private colleges.

`Not only would private colleges get Rs1 million to Rs2 million in donations for each admission, but competent students would suffer because of the practice.

PMDC President Dr Shabbir Lehri told Dawn that private medical colleges had introduced aptitude tests, which gave them the option to give high marks in oral tests, based on interest in the field of medical education and so on, thereby increasing the marks of students who gave donations.

`Private medical colleges also used to get heavy fees for four years, and during the fifth year [when house jobs begin] they would offer student Rs10,000 and in some cases even Rs5,000 per month,` Dr Lehri said.

During house jobs, colleges pay students who work in hospitals along with completing their studies.

`As the admissions are completed after Oct 31, for this year, according to the new policy, private colleges are bound to ignore aptitude tests and just admit students based on the marksthey get in intermediate and written tests,` he said.

`From next year, students will have to apply to the university private colleges are affiliated with, instead of applying to the college. In Punjab, 32 medical colleges are affiliated with the University of Health Sciences, so students will have to apply to UHS for admission to a private college and the result will be uploaded to the university website.

`The private college will have nothing to do with the admissions, because of which the practice of receiving donations will end,` he said.

Dr Lehri said it was also decided that private colleges would pay remunerations for house jobs equivalent to that of public sector hospitals. `In Islamabad, the remuneration for house jobs is Rs41,000 per month, and in Punjab it is Rs38,000 per month.

`Because of the lower remunerations offered by private colleges, students try to complete house jobs at government hospitals and it becomes a problem to accommodate them,` he said.

In response to a question, Dr Lehri said implementing the policy was a lengthy process.

`We had to get approval from the Ministry of National Health Services and Law Division, and the policy has finally been published in the Gazette of Pakistan so it is now possible to implement it,` he said.