The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria has revealed that a total of 529 foreign-trained medical and dental graduates failed the assessment examination conducted by Council.
The two-day assessment examination was conducted on
Wednesday, July 12, and Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the University College
Hospital, Ibadan in Oyo State.
The MDCN said 704 medical and 30 dental foreign-trained
graduates participated in the assessment examination.
The council, however, said only 189 medical graduates and 16
dental graduates passed the examination.
It also revealed that 515 medical graduates and 14 dental
graduates failed the examination.
The MDCN regulates the practice of Medicine, Dentistry, and
Alternative Medicine in the country to safeguard the nation’s health care
system.
The MDCN assessment examination is compulsory for all
foreign-trained doctors who plan to practise in Nigeria.
The assessment examination tests the candidates’ ability to
apply their basic medical sciences and clinical skills in a health care
setting.
Commenting on the result, the MDCN Registrar, Dr Tajudeen
Sanusi, said, “The pass is at 27.4 per cent, which is poor. However, the
assessment exam is necessary because we cannot put the health of Nigerians in
jeopardy; it is better we have a few doctors than have doctors that will put
the health of Nigerians in danger. All hands must be on deck to put this
country in the right place.”
According to him, the assessment examination is a required
global practice.
“It’s a global practice that if you train in a particular
jurisdiction and, you want to go to another jurisdiction, you subject yourself
to an assessment exam. Even if you are a professor of medicine here and you’ve
never practised in the United Kingdom or the United States, when you go there,
you subject yourself to their assessment exam. So, it’s a global practice,” he
said.