why is there such lack of locally qualified psychiatrists in pakistan?
i am privy to the fact that only a handful of psychiatrists have qualified by acquiring the higher degree of FCPS and hardly anyone (mayb one or two) the MD degree from pakistan, in the past 20 years.
in comparison, only in the state of kerala, india, there are 38 medical colleges run by the state and about 46 (i am told) private, according MD (equivalent to FCPS) degrees. at any given time there would be about 400 trainees in one such state, only in psychiatry.
centrally run indian degree called DNB, is also awarded via accredited training schemes/departments.
my gripe is that in view of such local shortage in pakistan and instead of training and encouraging to train hundreds, if not thousands of psychiatrists (research puts mental illness at 40% in pak women and men) we seem to be having tantrums of an external nature: condemning pak doctors who have migrated overseas and condemning overseas governments for allowing doctors from pakistan to enter their countries.
this is, as usual, our characteristic response: condemn and blame others.
there is need for about 20 thousand psychiatrists in pakistan, at least. how are we going to meet that need? where are planning, development and training strategies?
in addition to local needs, we need to try to fulfil overseas needs (as we are desperately trying to do it in IT). there is massive shortage of qualified psychiatrists all over the owrld. india is providing high quality psychiatrists to the rest of the world espcially UK, in hundreds. very soon pak psychiatrists would become a small minority there, after having been a major force, until recently.
that is all thanks to centralised, personality-cult-based, oppressive policies of the past and present (inflicted by outdated and outmoded medical feudalism let loose)on the people of pakistan.
it is time that this hegemony is broken. in the garb of regulation, feudalism in the medical world(especially psychiatry) needs to be shattered and our illustriuos doctors allowed to unleash their potentials.
things look pretty bleak from this vantage point!
dr m akmal makhdum
Ex-chair british pakistani psychiatrists association
