LAHORE: For the first time, admissions to all nursing schools of the province have been enabled through a central online system.

Merit lists of all nursing schools have also been displayed on the Punjab Nursing Admissions website, said a Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department spokesman on Wednesday.

`Of 1,665 seats in 43 nursing schools, 516 are filled on open merit, 1,089 closed quota seats by candidates belonging to under-developed areas, 44 by lady health visitors or midwives while the departmental seats are 16,` said the spokesmanwhile terming the step another milestoneinthejourney toensure transparency and merit in the healthcare and medical education sector.

For the last couple of years, candidates were being admitted to undergraduate courses (MBBS and BDS) in public medical and dental colleges under a centralised system. This year, it has been made mandatory for private medical and dental institutions also to admit students on the basis of a centralised merit list. In May, a central induction policy for postgraduate training at teaching institutions was introduced. So far, two inductions have been made for postgraduate training through entrance test under the Punjab Residency Programme.

Regarding the new system,Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Secretary Najam Ahmed Shah said the initiative was aimed at further improving the quality of medical and nursing education by ensuring merit and transparency so that medical professionals of international standard could be produced to meet future challenges.

Transparency and merit in medical education would eventually result in provision of better quality healthcare to masses, especially at public hospitals, Mr Shah said, adding that the system had been evolved in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board. He claimed the new system would eliminate chances of any kind of negative practice and only transparency and merit would prevail.