Loss of accreditation results in medical degree not being valid outside Guyana

Oct 22, 2015 News

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– Dean calls for Government’s support to remedy state of affairs

The medical degrees of the 46 students set to graduate from the University of Guyana (UG) School of Medicine this year will be affected due to a move by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) to revoke the institution’s accreditation.

This therefore means that the students, once graduated, will not be able to utilise their degrees outside of Guyana without first sitting the Caribbean Association of Medical Councils (CAMC) examination.
This examination would not have been required if the accreditation was not revoked.
Of the 46 students, fewer than five are from Caribbean territories, and unlike their Guyanese counterparts, they will not be able to practise in their homelands when their degrees are conferred upon them next month.
The School of Medicine’s accreditation was revoked earlier this year following a visit by CAAM-HP when it was revealed that a number of recommendations to improve the institution were not adhered to. The recommendations were made in 2012 when the Kingston, Jamaica-based body visited Guyana. Full accreditation is usually offered for a four-year period.
Re-accreditation of the School of Medicine may not be possible until the latter part of next year, according to Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Emmanuel Cummings, as he considered the volume of work that will have to be done and submitted to CAAM-HP.
Dr. Cummings and Dr. Carl ‘Max’ Hanoman, who was at the time Director of the School of Medicine and Vice Chairman of CAAM-HP, were instrumental in paving the way for the institution to be fully accredited in 2009. While Dr. Cummings was Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences for a period of 10 years he’d stepped down in 2013. He was however reappointed to the position in August in order to help the process of putting measures in place for the School of Medicine to regain its accreditations.
“We might be able to get things together and submit our documents to CAAM-HP by January (2016) and it could be about three to four months before they visit and when they come their visit will take about a week,” said Dr. Cummings.
He noted that all stakeholders are usually interviewed by the body to determine the authenticity of the information submitted.
Stressing the importance of accreditation, Dr. Cummings said that because Guyana is a signatory to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), which allows for professionals to work within the CARICOM region without a work permit, the Medical School was required to be accredited by CAAM-HP. This process is done in order to ensure that the degrees throughout CARICOM are equivalent.
According to the CAAM-HP website (www.caam.hp.org), the body is the legally constituted body established in 2003 under the aegis of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), empowered to determine and prescribe standards and to accredit programmes of medical, dental, veterinary and other health professions education on behalf of the contracting parties in CARICOM.
Dr. Cummings therefore pointed out, “You have to meet certain minimum standards in order for your degree to be worth anything…it was to address this that CAAM-HP was established.”
The UG programme, although when accredited is on par with the others in the region, is offered at a much cheaper cost and thus attracts some Caribbean students. Dr. Cummings disclosed that while the UG medical programme is offered at the cost of US$2,500 per year, the cost across Caribbean territories can range from US$10,000 to US$20,000 per year and even more in some cases.
At the George’s University in Grenada for instance, Dr. Cummings said that the medical programme is offered at US$60,000.
This, however, is one of the factors that has been preventing UG from adhering to the recommendations of CAAM-HP, said Dr. Cummings.
“How can you maintain standards when you are collecting fees that don’t allow you to maintain those standards…that is the problem that we have and I have told the politicians this; this is not about politics this is the reality,” asserted the Health Sciences Dean.
“We have said to the University many times that we have to find ways and means of increasing the income of the Medical School in order to maintain the recommended standards,” said Dr. Cummings as he disclosed that there are 144 standards divided into seven areas that must be met.
He cited the need for a proper anatomy laboratory, certain amenities such as a students’ common room and library, state of the art classrooms complete with multi-media equipment and even an improved building.
Currently, the medical students are subjected to have some classes at a location above the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation mortuary which according to Dr. Cummings, “I’ve been made to understand is falling to pieces.”
In addition to the university’s failure to submit required reports to CAAM-HP, one of the most troubling deficiencies highlighted by CAAM-HP was the need for a curriculum review.
The Dean yesterday confided, “The last time that we had a major curriculum review was in 1994 and since then what we did was minor review so when they came in 2006 and came back in 2012 we basically showed them the same curriculum with some minor changes. We added some courses but the mode of delivery wasn’t what they wanted.”
“They wanted to see a mode of delivery that encourages integration…What the medical students are doing in year one you must be able to see the relationship in the subsequent years…” added Dr. Cummings.
Another recommendation of CAAM-HP is that lecturers of the medical programme be qualified in education. “I must say that we are doing that right now; there are a number of doctors who have been enrolled and they are doing that right now,” asserted Dr. Cummings.
Added to this, CAAM-HP has recommended that a recent and updated Memorandum of Understanding between the university and the GPHC be crafted.
While an MOU was signed just before the People’s Progressive Party/Civic demitted office earlier this year, the document is currently under review by the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change government.
“That MOU has so far not received the full blessing up to now…It is still being reviewed by the new Government,” said Dr. Cummings. “We as a Medical School can do our best but then it hinges on support from the Government financially.”
He added, “The accreditation of the Medical School is not just the Business of the Medical School it is the business of the whole country…Government has to support financially; this is not politics. If our programmes in health are not accredited then our professionals are not going to be able to work in CARICOM countries,” he added.

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