No fewer than 529 foreign-trained medical and dental graduates have failed the assessment examination conducted by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN.
The latest examination report from the MDCN indicate that 704 medical and 30 dental foreign-trained graduates participated in the assessment examination while 515 medical graduates and 14 dental graduates failed the examination.
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.
Credible News reports that the MDCN regulates the practice of Medicine, Dentistry, and Alternative Medicine in the country to safeguard the nation’s health care system and
The MDCN assessment examination, which is compulsory for all foreign-trained doctors who plan to practise in Nigeria, tests the candidates’ ability to apply their basic medical sciences and clinical skills in a health care setting.
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.
“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.
