MDCN warns against overseas doctors’ training

ACTING registrar, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Dr Tajudeen Sanusi, has warned parents sending their wards abroad to study Medicine and Dentistry, saying from the experience of the council, they are usually incompetent doctors.

Dr Sanusi gave the charge at the induction ceremony of 124 medical doctors and dentists from the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (UI) into the medical profession last Wednesday.

He said the council discovered that these centres only produce medical doctors for export that are not competent to practise.

Sanusi said parents who want their wards to read medicine and dentistry should ensure that they attend well established local medical schools, where the training is tailored towards the need of people in the community.

He said, “When they come in and we organise assessment examination for them, we start wondering if they are medical doctors or dental surgeons.

“Probing further, you will discover that they do not have the prerequisite qualification to enter medical and dental school in Nigeria. These foreign schools see this as a source of foreign exchange

“They make sure that they do not fail; they just train them anyhow and send them back to their country. They cannot even practise medicine in the country where they were trained, which is different from what obtains here.”

Earlier, the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Idowu Olayinka, urged the new doctors, trained based on Nigeria’s newly revised competency-driven medical and dental training curricular, to apply their knowledge and skills to the service of the people of Nigeria who paid for their education.

Speaking through the provost, College of Medicine, Professor Olubunmi Olapade-Olaopa, Professor Olayinka said their training had equipped them to be relevant and market-worthy for their entire career.

He advised them to shun all acts of corruption, unrighteousness or injustice to others and the healthcare system.