BMA demands legislation for better medical education

The President of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) has demanded legislation to prevent “catastrophic” outcomes of medical education following the increase in number of medical colleges.

Prof Mahmud Hasan speaking at a policy dialogue on Thursday said the growing number of medical colleges led to a dearth of quality teachers.

“The outcomes probably will be catastrophic,” he said.

“We are expanding medical colleges, but we don’t have quality teachers,” he said.

“We need legislation to control quality”.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare organised the dialogue on the health, population and nutrition sector development programme’s (HPNSDP) mid-term review.

There have been questions about the quality of medical education in Bangladesh as the number of medical colleges has grown rapidly.

But doctors’ national body BMA rarely speaks out on the issue.

As of last Dec, there are 29 government and 55 private medical colleges in Bangladesh.

Speaking after the BMA President, the junior health minister Zahid Maleque stressed on the need for an accreditation body to ensure quality in hospitals.

He, however, did not say anything about medical education.

“We need to have an accreditation body so that people can know which hospital offers better services,” he said.