UG&#8217;s School of Medicine eyes reaccreditation

Last Updated on Friday, 17 June 2016, 18:03 by Denis Chabrol

The University of Guyana's Faculty of Health Sciences which governs the School of Medicine — The University of Guyana’s Faculty of Health Sciences which governs the School of Medicine

The University of Guyana’s (UG) School of Medicine hopes to regain accreditation from the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM – HP) when a team inspects the institution later this year, UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith said Friday.

Speaking at his first news conference, the newly-appointed principal of the publicly-funded tertiary institution has singled out the reaccreditation of the School of Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences as one of his four priorities.

Griffith said the major concerns included the need to enhance the facilities at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), little progress in regularizing the teaching and clinical staff in the Medical School, an outdated curriculum. “The accreditation agency says it is not tenable to have very minimal, if any, change in your curriculum since in the 1990s so the onus is on us is to be able to modernize and update the curriculum and we have started that progress significantly,” he said. The Vice Chancellor hoped that by the time CAAM-HP officials pay the next site visit later this year, UG would be able to demonstrate the efforts that would have been made by then on revising the curriculum.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Ivelaw Griffith speaking at a news conference held at the institution's Education Lecture Theatre. — Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Ivelaw Griffith speaking at a news conference held at the institution’s Education Lecture Theatre.

The Medical School was provisionally accredited by CAAM-HP in October, 2013 but it was withdrawn in July, 2015 because UG did not submit a progress report in 2014 and 2015.

The Vice Chancellor said so far UG has submitted its self-study report, a move that would trigger CAAM-HP’s preparations for a site visit in September or October, 2016. “That site visit will allow us an opportunity to not only show the accrediting agency what we have done and what we still have set in motion to do…,” he said.

Griffith hopes that with the appointment of Dr. Aaron as the new head of UG’s Medical School, quality medical education would be delivered and that graduates from an accredited institution would be allowed to practice anywhere they wish.

UG says its Medical School has been in existence since 1985 and has graduated more than 350 doctors. Our graduates are serving in Guyana, the Caribbean, North America and Britain and have made significant contributions to health and health science education in these countries.