The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), on Wednesday, inducted the first set of 50 medical doctors, who graduated from the College of Medicine, Kaduna State University (KASU).
The MDCN Registrar, Dr Tajudeen Sanusi, said at the maiden induction and oath taking ceremony of the new medical doctors in Kaduna that their training was both academic and professional.
Sanusi urged them to discharge their duties with high sense of responsibility and acceptable professional conduct.
“You must be aware that you are licensed to cure and not to kill. As such, do everything possible to practise within the minimum required skills, knowledge and professional conduct.
“I commended the synergy between KASU and Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, which made it possible for the medical students to acquire both the academic and clinical training required of them,” he said.
The Provost of the college, Prof. Abdullah Abba, said that the KASU medical school was established as a Faculty of Medicine in 2008 to bridge the gap of medical doctors needed to improve healthcare delivery in the state.
Abba said that the first set of 46 students were admitted in 2009 but became stagnated and could not proceed for clinical training due to non-accreditation and absence of a befitting teaching hospital.
“The Kaduna State government had to transfer these students to Kampala International University, Unganda in 2015 for clinical training.
“The government, thereafter, injected huge resources and transformed Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital to a teaching hospital, in line with the MDCN minimum standard.
“Consequently, the National Universities Commission (NUC) granted full accreditation to the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme in 2015, while the MDCN approved pre-clinical programme in 2016.
“The faculty then transited to a college of medicine, in line with the structure of medical schools in Nigeria and in 2018, the college was granted accreditation for Laboratory Medicine and acquired full accreditation in 2019,” he said.
The provost pointed out that the accreditations had enabled the students to proceed for clinical training and the eventual graduation of the first set of 50 medical doctors.
Abba commended the new medical doctors for their patient, urging them to be excellent ambassadors of the KASU medical college.
The KASU Vice Chancellor, Prof. Muhammad Tanko, thanked MDCN for increasing the university’s admission quota from 50 to 60 students.
Tank also thanked the state ministries of education and health for the overwhelming support that enabled the university to provide the requisite minimum standard training of medical doctors.
Prof. Musa Borodo, President, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, said that the quantity and quality of medical doctors remained the most challenging problem in medical education in the country.
Borodo said in a paper entitled: “The Challenges of Medical Education in Nigeria: Peculiarities of State- owned Universities”, that the country produced an average of 3,019 doctors annually.
According to him, it will take the country many years to bridge the gap of the required 153,000 doctors to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) minimum recommended ratio of one doctor to 1,000 patients.
In his address, Gov. Nasir El-Rufa’i promised to sustain his administration’s support to KASU and Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital in order to improve the quality of training.
El-Rufa’i, who was represented by the Commissioner of Education, Dr Shehu Makarfi, commended MDCN for upholding the ethics of the medical profession and for its ongoing efforts to rid the profession of quacks and maintain acceptable conduct.
James Auta, who spoke on behalf of the graduates, thanked KASU, the medical college, the state government, parents and all those who had helped in making their dream a reality.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Auta emerged as the best graduating medical student and received seven out of 15 awards presented, while Patience Timothy emerged best graduating female student, with two awards. (NAN)
