UITH boss opposes 11-year course duration for medical students

The Chief Medical Director of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, has cautioned against panic measures that could lead to alterations of the current modules of medical education in Nigeria.

Olatinwo raised this fear while reacting to recent calls by some Provosts of Colleges of Medicine in the Nigerian Universities to increase the course duration of medical students from its present seven years to 11, saying this will boost the standard of medical education and practice in the country.

In a chat with The Guardian in Ilorin, the UITH boss said, “what is important is strict compliance with the existing rules and regulations at the medical colleges.

More modules could, however, be added to the existing curricular. Besides, we could restrict the admission policy to direct entry. I believe these will boost standard.”

He called for the introduction of new courses such as management, medical sociology and psychology, and moral rectitude, just as he said the medical ethics should be upheld among new doctors as a way of placing more on human lives than mundane acquisition.