The Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) has directed the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to suspend its mandatory attachment programme for medical graduates who schooled abroad and seek to take the council’s assessment examination.
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The panel gave this directive after an interactive session with the management of the Council led by its Chairman, Professor Abba Hassan, at the National Assembly on Monday in Abuja.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe, said the attachment should be suspended until the Council can justify its necessity.
The panel also asked the Council to explain why it restricted such attachment programme to locations chosen by it instead of expanding it to all centres.
It urged the Council to furnish the committee with further information on the cost of the programme.
The session was however heated following the inability of members of the panel to agree as to the need for the attachment or otherwise.
While Senator Oloriegbe appeared to favour the position of the Council on the necessity of the programme, the Vice Chairman of the panel, Senator Betty Apiafi, insisted that such a programme should rather be made optional.
She accused the Chairman of the panel of alleged bias for appearing to favour the position of the Council that insisted the programme is necessary to remedy whatever deficiencies may exist especially with Nigeria medical graduates from Schools in Europe.
Apiafi called on the Council to put information on their website to warn Nigerians seeking medical education abroad on which schools to patronise to achieve quality.
She also insisted that medical graduates from foreign schools taking the Council’s exams should be told what books to read especially in public health to reduce their rate of failure in the assessment.
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