Postgraduate college affirms right, capacity to train medical specialists

REGISTRAR of the National Postgraduate Medical College, Prof. Oluwole Atoyebi has reiterated that the institution has the legal backing, as well as the capacity to certify specialists who will train other medical and dental doctors to professional level.

Atoyebi said this in reaction to claims in some quarters bothering on which institutions have the right to award Postgraduate Fellowship in Medicine and Dentistry vis-a-vis their doctorates in the Nigerian university system.

The registrar, in a letter addressed to the College Principal, Prof. Rasheed Arogundade, said it was imperative for the College to make such clarification, “as the organ of the Federal Government of Nigeria that awards the Fellowship in Clinical Medicine and Dentistry in line with international best practices.”

He noted that the National Postgraduate Medical College was established by law as a body Corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal. The law gave the College the responsibility to conduct postgraduate examinations of candidates in the various branches of Medicine and Dentistry, Atoyebi said.

He observed that in Nigeria, as in other parts of the world, the topmost graduate qualification recognized for clinical sciences, is the Fellowship while for core basic Medical Sciences (Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology), it is the Ph.D which is recognized to get to peak of their careers.

“The uniqueness of the Fellowship training of the College is the fact that it combines the full academic research content as obtainable in any sound doctoral degree with the structural clinical (professional) postgraduate training. This accounts for why it takes a long time to produce a single Fellow in any of the specialized branches of Medicine and Dentistry.”

He noted that the competency-based curriculum for the Fellowship Residency programme had been designed to train postgraduate specialists and clinical lecturers over a minimum of six years with definite competencies in the four areas of professional practice; clinical problem solving, research, teaching and Health Management.

On Fellowship certification, Atoyebi added: “There are three years of the evaluation process viz: Primary, Part I Fellowship and Part II (Final) Fellowship.