Training of medical doctors questioned (07-08-07)

ording to Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa, the NUST Medical School is failing to meet training and education standards set by the Health Professions Authority (HPA) and the University of Zimbabwe School of Medicine.

“The school is under scrutiny. The question that comes to mind is: Are we doing what we are supposed to be doing in so far as the training of medical students is concerned?” said Parirenyatwa in an interview after a tour of the NUST medical school in Bulawayo.

Parirenyatwa added: “As the Minister responsible for health…I have received concerns from the Health Professions Authority and the UZ Medical School that the NUST Medical School is producing half baked trained doctors.”

Parirenyatwa said the Ministry of Health officials, in a bid to keep in check NUST Medical School training standards, would ‘continue to come and appraise themselves with the situation at the College’ which is operating from Mpilo Central Hospital, pending construction of its own buildings near the United College of Education.

NUST took over the School of Medicine which was run by the UZ as the Bulawayo College of Health Sciences in 2003 after the latter relocated to Harare citing a shortage of lecturers are poor learning facilities.

The Bulawayo College of Health Sciences started operating in Bulawayo in 2003. The NUST School of Medicine offers a four year degree programme aimed at producing health professionals with a bias towards preventive, curative and rehabilitative health care- CAJ News.