558 fellowship and 145 membership degrees awarded at CPSP

The proceedings of the ceremony started with the recitation from the Holy Quran, followed by the administering of the oath by Prof Syed Waqar Ahmed, Registrar, CPSP. Prof Zafar Ullah Chaudhry, the President, CPSP, in his welcome address expressed immense pleasure to welcome the honourable chief guest, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi at the academic activity of the College.

Earlier in his speech, President told that 558 Fellows (Consultants) and 145 Members (Specialists) including four from Health Profession (MCPS-HPE) are being awarded degrees at this component of the Convocation.

He recalled how the College had grown and got recognized internationally for producing quality specialist doctors, who have been serving people of the country and abroad with all knowledge and skills they had acquired. He added that “The CPSP had produced 23,140 fellows and 9,433 members to date. It keeps on introducing new fellowship programs in emerging unique specialities, and now the number of its fellowship programs has gone to 74. The College also produces mid-level specialists through its Membership programs in essential disciplines for the district and rural hospitals, he added. It is also offering a Membership program in Medical Education and another in Health Systems Management.

Thus, the College today contributes to 95% of the specialist manpower of the country and almost 100% of the Armed Forces. The CPSP training network today offers residency training in 300 institutions within the country and abroad with over 24,000 residents acquiring training under 3,746 supervisors.”

Following this, he also spoke of the College’s academic and professional partnership with foreign universities and students’ scholarship programs, which is evident by the academic linkages it has developed with Royal Colleges of UK, Ireland and Canada, Saudi Commission for Health Specialties and institutions of PGME of Malaysia, China, Singapore, Thailand and other ASEAN countries and the international awards it has fetched.

He elaborated the future vision of the CPSP to establish a Model Teaching Hospital and a Postgraduate Nursing College in Lahore, as effective specialist care cannot be delivered without trained nursing staff. He believes that this can be done with the support of fellows, members, and other sections of the society who wish this national institution to excel further.

He concluded the speech by thanking the Chief Guest for his gracious presence.

President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, the chief guest, expressed great pleasure to join this occasion of the College from where he had also been associated for several years. He congratulated all the graduating Fellows and Members and commended the efforts of their parents, spouses and kids who sacrificed a lot to help them having such high qualification. He also shared his education experience in Pakistan as well as in Europe. He claimed that the CPSP is a great institution. There are other universities as well which are giving equivalent diplomas, but the standard of evaluation should be enhanced. He specifically advised fellows to cure a patient with empathy and care because if a patient is treated with just a placebo and empathy, it will work amazingly well as it gives strength to the patient.

He emphasized that our people need equitable access to comprehensive healthcare, and CPSP is doing a splendid job in this regard by producing graduating specialists in adequate numbers. Being a doctor by profession, he emphasized upon some areas where we need to pay attention such as malnutrition, population expansion, sanitary and clean water. This is our collective responsibility to give awareness to common people regarding health issues. Along with treatment, we should also focus on the prevention of diseases.

Although the CPSP is recognized in the Middle East and Europe, he wished our doctors to get opportunities and income within this homeland instead of going abroad.

He also wished Fellows and Members all the best for their future endeavours.