Two Pakistani Universities gets accreditation from Saudi Health Commission

Two Pakistan public-sector medical universities have their post-graduate degrees recognized from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties.

This recognition opens new avenues for fresh post-graduates and also, allows those already working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to upgrade their statuses to “Consultants”.

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The seven specialties to get accreditation from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS) are: Clinical Fellowship in Pediatric Ophthalmology from the King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Doctor of Medicine (MD) in Gastroenterology and Dermatology and Master of Surgery (MS) in Orthopaedics.

The SCHS has also recognized the University of Health Sciences’ Master of Maternal and Child Health program.

According to reports, the Saudi Commission had been approached by all the public-sector Medical Universities of Pakistan but the SCHS only accorded accreditation to King Edward Medical University (KEMU) and University of Health Sciences (UHS).

Following the accreditation, King Edward Medical University’s administration now seeks to get its other programs recognized from SCHS as well.

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The KEMU’s Registrar, Dr. Riasat Ali said, “We are actively pursuing the case and hopefully most of our programs will be recognized in the coming edition”. He also thanked the SCHS for prioritizing Pakistan’s oldest Medical Institutions.

Following the misleading report regarding the sacking of doctors after the de-accreditation of MS/MD programs by the KSA and other Middle Eastern countries last year, medical universities and institutions were in some sort of a race with each other to get accredited.

Later, it was revealed that the SCHS had never recognized the MS/MD programs in the first place and of de-accreditation, there had been no question at all.