Vusumuzi Dube
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE National University of Science and Technology (Nust) Medical School is set to increase its enrolment from 25 students per intake to 60.
This comes after authorities gave the green light to the institution following an assessment of the quality of graduates produced.
The Medical School housed at Mpilo Central Hospital was introduced in 2012 and has since produced four sets of graduates.
Nust School of Medicine Executive Dean, Professor Elopy Sibanda told Sunday News this Tuesday of the latest development.
“We have been allowed to increase our enrolment to 60. For the first couple of years we were being monitored where our quality was being assured. The authorities were satisfied that we produce quality graduates and now they can allow us to increase our number,” said Prof Sibanda. The country has only three facilities that train doctors. This has seen the demand for aspiring students being high with the institution receiving 600 applications.
“The increase of the number is still a small dot, we could have been able to increase more but we do not have premises at the moment as our campus is yet to be constructed. The level of demand is very high and the candidates are very highly qualified and therefore I think if we could expand the services we would be able to offer more. There is a World Health Organisation recommended ration of patient to doctor ratio which we can achieve if we are able to train more people,” he said. Prof Sibanda said they do not want to only train shallow people but to get specialists as well.
“We have Ekusileni Hospital which is meant to be a queenary hospital which is earmarked to do specialist services. As such we need to train these specialists so that patients do not go out of the country,” said Prof Sibanda. @nyeve14
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