SLMC notice warns against misleading ads, advertorials
View(s):The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) several days before an Appeal Court decision providing provisional registration to students of the South Asia Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) placed a newspaper advertisement on what it called “certain misleading advertisements and advertorials”.
This was pertaining to the recruitment of students for local and foreign medical and dental schools. The SLMC notice said that such advertisements and advertorials are “calculated to induce students to join institutions which are not recognised by the SLMC. They also entice students who do not fulfil the mandatory entry criteria specified by the SLMC to enroll in medical/dental courses”.
On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal, based on a petition, directed that provisional registration be provided to students from SAITM.
The SLMC notice said that prospective medical or dental students seeking admission to medical/dental schools, foreign or local should verify the following from the Registrar of the SLMC: 1) Whether such institute is recognised by the SLMC, 2) whether prospective students possess the mandatory entry educational qualifications stipulated by the SLMC to follow these courses which are two credit passes and one simple pass in the Biology stream in one and the same sitting in the subjects Biology, Chemistry and Physics at the GCE AL. For Edexcel or Cambridge GCE AL the requirement is two ‘C’s and one ‘D’ in the Biology stream in one and the same sitting for the same subject.
The SLMC, while stating that foundation courses conducted by various institutions and medical schools are not considered equivalent to the GCE AL in Sri Lanka, noted that it is a punishable offence to practise medicine, surgery or dentistry without valid SLMC registration.