The University of Guyana Medical School (UGMS) is “on stream” to being reaccredited, according to Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Dr. Emmanuel Cummings.
Cummings told Stabroek News that a recently submitted self-study as well as plans to construct a clinical instruction facility are expected to significantly impact the decision to reaccredit the Medical School.
He explained that Cabinet has appointed a task force to oversee the construction of the building, which is being funded in part by a US$1M donation from Yesu Persaud, of Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL).
“The task force includes the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Social Protection, the Medical Director, the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, a representative of the Ministry of Education, the Chief Executive Officer of GPHC [Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation], the Bursar of the University and a representative from DDL,” Cummings said.
Persaud had pledged $200M to assist in the construction of a building in the compound of the Georgetown Public Hospital to be used for student instruction.
Minister of Public Health George Norton had said that once the new building is completed, it will house an updated library, a student common room, and modernised teaching and learning facilities, including appropriate laboratories to afford clinical practice. They are all part of the effort to meet the standards of Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP), which state “a medical school must have, or be assured use of, buildings and equipment appropriate to achieve its educational and other goals” and also “have, or be assured use of, appropriate resources for the clinical instruction of its medical students. A hospital or other clinical facility that serves as a major site for medical student education must have appropriate instructional facilities and information resources.”
Cummings further explained that while the building will not be completed by the time of CAAM-HP visit, the efforts being made to have it constructed will be used as “evidence.”
“Accreditation is about evidence. We have evidence in the funds, as donated by DDL, in the Cabinet approval, in the task force team, in the identification of a site and in the architectural drawing,” he said, while adding that while the $200M may not be enough to complete the building the Minister of Public Health has already made a commitment on behalf of the government to fill any shortfalls which may occur.
In 2015, UGMS lost the provisional accreditation it had first gained in 2008, after it failed to submit annual progress reports.
At that time, CAAM-HP, which was in 2003 established under the aegis of Caricom to accredit programmes of medical education, asked the UGMS to prepare for a full site visit in early 2016 if it wished to regain accreditation.
However, Vice-Chancellor Ivelaw Griffith told reporters in June that the recently submitted “self-study” would actually trigger the visit from the accrediting body. The visit is now expected to be later in the year, by which time it is hoped that the facility will be under construction.
The UGMS was first granted provisional accreditation in 2008 for the period January, 2008 to December, 2009. In 2009, it was accredited with conditions for the period 2008 to 2012. After a site visit in 2013, the institution was afforded provisional accreditation for the period 2013 to 2015, with the condition that issues flagged in the site visit report and in its letter be addressed and reported on in the school’s reports to CAAM-HP, the organisation said on its website.
UGMS was required to submit annual progress reports and prepare for a limited (focused) survey visit from CAAM-HP as conditions for the retention and possible upgrading of its accredited status.
However, after the university failed to submit its annual report in 2015, a decision was taken to withdraw the Provisional Accreditation and ask the school to prepare for a full site visit early 2016 if it wishes to regain accreditation.
In its “Standards for the accreditation of Medical Schools in Caricom,” CAAM-HP lists a wide variety of standards in the following areas: the institutional setting; the students; education programmes; the faculty; educational resources; internship and continuing professional education.
Stabroek News understands that while issues in several of these areas affect the accreditation of UGMS, the three main issues revolve around the curriculum, which was outdated, the operationalisation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Public Health, UGMS, and the GPHC, as well the absence of facilities to support the medical programmes at GPHC and UGMS.
The curriculum, which has not been seriously reviewed since 1994, has recently undergone an overhaul. Reportedly one of the major issues was the lack of time afforded to the medical students for review and research as well as the absence of continuity in courses.
There were also concerns about the quality of tuition and CAAM-HP has asked that lecturers be qualified in education as well as medicine.
Vice-Chancellor Griffith, addressing this issue, had confirmed that significant progress had been made in modernising and updating the curriculum.
