● Are you in favour of making future doctors sit for examinations before being allowed to practise in Mauritius?

I am in favour of this principle. I think such exams are necessary because our young doctors have different training from different universities all over the world. We do not have the means to check the type and quality of training provided by all the institutions because we can?t go there. It would indeed be much easier to do a sort of streaming ? you may call it exams or assessment ? to make sure these young professionals have the minimum to practise in an efficient and safe way. The two-year ?internship? does not provide the basic knowledge and skills; it is merely a time of practical experience.

● Who should be subject to such exams?

Every future doctor should sit for this exam so that there is no feeling of discrimination. Those with the basic knowledge and skills should not be afraid of such an exam in any case. As for the modalities, they are still to be defined but this exam should be fair, equitable and meet the needs of the health sector in Mauritius.

● Let?s go straight to the point... Do students coming from countries of Eastern Europe have the required skills and knowledge to practise medicine?

You know, I was trained in the former USSR and I did my basic studies as well as my specialization in cardiology there in the seventies and eighties. I can guarantee that the training done there was made with much seriousness but it seems that, since the soviet system has been shaken, there has been a sort of liberalization and universities have been mushrooming. There may be individual cases of universities in several countries of this region, which do not have the required level. When I was the president of the medical council, we saw some universities that did not even abide by the entry criteria ? for which a minimum level in mathematics, chemistry and biology, for instance, is absolutely necessary. Likewise, we had some disturbing information that some students did not have the proper follow-up there and that their knowledge and skills were not assessed through objective criteria. So it appears that there are some gaps in the system?

● And is this why you are recommending those exams?

Yes, these exams for all will also be useful to avoid penalizing those who have had proper training with the proper rigour in those countries? they should not suffer from a bad image because of the black sheep. This exam should not offend anyone but should on the contrary rehabilitate the bad image of Eastern countries at the moment. People tend to put everyone in the same basket, which wrongs the doctors already confirmed who were adequately trained in eastern countries.

?The medical council is there to protect the public against malpractices of medicine.?

● We are talking a lot about the future doctors. What about those who have already started practising without any exams and who will obviously continue to do so?

In every country where the medical council has a control over quality, there is a need to show that there are methods to assess this. There are indeed in Mauritius a number of ways of checking the level of doctors during their whole career but there is no coordination between the public and private sector and there is no specific strategy for this. The idea of continuous training is yet one of the best ways of making sure these doctors are safe for their patients. In the public sector, GPs and consultants are supposed to make sure that doctors have the proper training and support during their career and make up for possible gaps. But if all efforts were made to try and give the doctors concerned the right support and they still do not have the required level, then more serious sanctions should be taken. For instance, the system of licence renewal should be reviewed in Mauritius because at the moment, the payment for the licence is the only condition to obtain it without any other checks.

● Do you believe that the medical council can refuse the enrolment of a future doctor?

The medical council is there to protect the public against malpractices of medicine. If it has information that one candidate does not have the competencies, then it has the obligation of not allowing this doctor to practise. If the medical council realizes that he is not up to practice according to agreed norms, it must be able to take action. In such cases, it is not the rights of the individual that are important but those of the ?health consumer?.