Trinidad Express
Sunday, July 1st 2007
In a strongly-worded letter to Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and copied to the Prime Minister, Patrick Manning; John Rahael, Minister of Health; and the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Dr Phyllis Pitt-Miller; Prof Courtenay Bartholomew, Emeritus Professor Medicine (UWI), has criticised the admissions policy of students for entry into medical school in Mt Hope.
“Over the years I have received many complaints of alleged discriminatory or preferential admission practices in the selection of certain students for entry into medical school here, several of which I am sure are not valid. However, I could not personally verify any of these until it was experienced in a most glaring way by two members of my competent and dedicated staff of the Medical Research Foundation, who in addition to their A-Levels had BScs from very reputable universities in the USA and impressive extracurricular health-related activities while there.
“They were rejected by the Dean and her special admissions committee in favour of numerous 18-19 year old applicants ‘fresh’ out of college. Needless to say, they were readily accepted by the Faculty of Medicine in Jamaica,” Prof Bartholomew said.
He insisted that the time had come for “the immediate appointment of a Commission of Enquiry, not only into the entry requirements, questionable scoring assessment and the composition of the Dean’s selection panel, but also an enquiry into the numerous complaints” he had received “about certain cliquishness and recruitment policies in all the hospitals.
“There should be no dilly-dallying about it as, for example, with the long-awaited passing of a new Medical Board Act”, Bartholomew said.
It appears that the original article is no longer available on the Trinidad Express’ website. Here is a snapshot of the original article, “Prof hits admission policy of Mt Hope medical school” Sunday, July 1st 2007
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