East African Community Pushing for Joint Medical Examinations

The East African Community wants all its member state to have a joint exam for all their practitioners.

This will help improve on the level of professionalism and quality of doctors in the region through joining hands and combining efforts.

The Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council registrar, Dr. Katumba Ssentongo said the joint exam would also make the local university to take responsibility in quality training.

A report by the EAC permanent secretaries on the previous medical schools’ inspection in the region indicates alot of challenges especially of lack of supervisors and proper infrastructure.

“Each country was told to consult. Uganda has been expeditious although it came with some legal implications. We have now enshrined it in the law which will be presented to Parliament. It will help standardize everybody and stop prejudices. That is the standard even in the US. You train and they give everyone an exam. This will make universities take responsibility,

“Some universities are happy when we test medical doctors trained abroad. However, if we used the same measure on our local graduates, they could fail. Even public universities could be exposed.  We have been having challenges during inspections. When you, for instance, ask for surgeons, they stage-manage them. This hide and seek will not help us.”  Ssentongo said.