Medical graduates settle until appeal

Foreign trained medical graduates protesting a pre-internship test they failed in November 2018, which they criticised as unfair and discriminatory and want annulled, have reached a settlement with the Medical and Dental Council of Namibia and others at the Windhoek High Court.

Following the launch of an urgent application in January, the parties agreed that the graduates would not have to undertake a second round of pre-evaluations this month, pending the outcome of the appeal hearing in April with the Medical and Dental Council of Namibia.

The issue of the pre-internship evaluations, which 205 of 207 foreign trained medical graduates failed to pass in November, was also raised during a protest march last week in Windhoek, where dozens of these graduates marched to the prime minister's office to intervene in the matter.

The graduates allege that the test was unfairly structured and they were not given sufficient time to prepare. They are also questioning the conditions under which the exams were held, and the authorities who set up the test.

Further, the graduates have said it is discriminatory that locally trained medical students are not required to take the test.

The pre-internship evaluations were instituted in 2016 by the medical council to ensure the foreign trained graduates meet local standards after concerns were raised about the poor quality of training received in foreign facilities.



Necessary standards

In an affidavit submitted on behalf of the council, Dr Cornelius Vatileni Weyulu, registrar with the Health Professions Council of Namibia, explained the evaluations are held to test the “aptitude and competency” of foreign trained medical graduates to ensure that “competent medical professionals enter the medical profession”.

He noted that a study conducted of more than 200 of the graduates who obtained their qualifications in Russia, China and the Ukraine, found that the majority, 99%, of these graduates, did not “meet the basic entry requirements for admission” into the University of Namibia's medical school. He said past experience proved that medical graduates who studied elsewhere, particularly Eastern Europe and China, are often “poorly trained” and have “been found wanting as interns in many a respect”.

The affidavit underlined that although these interns would earn the same salary as others, because of the “poor nature of their training, graduates trained in Eastern Europe and China would not do serious ward work. Most of them cannot. They are not qualified to do serious ward work”.

This would result in others doing “double work to cater for the gap created by the incompetence of the European and China-trained students”.

He addressed one of the complaints of the current crop of foreign trained graduates who failed the evaluation in November, that locally trained graduates are not required to undergo the same evaluation.

“This is essentially because the curriculum under which the Namibian students are being trained has been approved by the Medical and Dental Council.”

Weyulu further explained the practical training they undergo as students in hospitals is regularly reviewed and approved by the council.

“That is the distinction between foreign trained graduates and graduates trained in Namibia.”

Weyulu informed the court further that the same test that the graduates took in November last year, was given to graduates from the Unam, which the majority, except for “one or two” passed.

He underlined that the evaluation “is a standard examination that any medically trained person should be expected to pass”.





JANA-MARI SMITH