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Time for Tighter Checks on Medical Schools?

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Time for Tighter Checks on Medical Schools? DOCTORS AND ISLAMIC STATE Time for tighter checks on medical schools? The British students who have fled to Syria to work while studying in Khartoum have exposed the weakness of the system for accrediting medical schools worldwide, Duncan Gardham reports he UK General Medical Council is A group of 11 medical students and recently University of Medical Sciences and Technol- relying on foreign governments qualifi ed doctors (believed to be seven Brit- ogy (UMST) in Khartoum, a private university to approve the medical degrees ons, one Canadian, one American, and two established in 2007. Last week, seven British it accepts with no further checks Sudanese) fl ew from Sudan to work in Syria students were among a party of 12 from UMST, on the quality of teaching. The in March, raising further questions about who travelled to Turkey, believed to be trying to Tpractice raises questions about the reliability the infl uences that young students can come enter Syria, the Foreign Offi ce has confi rmed. of teaching in countries such as Sudan, which under while studying abroad. UMST is one of 12 colleges in Sudan reg- has been attracting students from B ritain Many of the students (above right), it istered by the World Directory of Medical partly because medical colleges there are emerged, came from UK families of Sudanese Schools (www.wdoms.org), relied on by the cheaper and easier to get into. background and had been studying at the GMC. Sudan is just one of several countries Islamic State creates jihadi health service Many doctors in war zones seek to remain independent, but the situation in Syria and Iraq is forcing them to take sides Since the militant group Islamic the injured mujaahideen [holy stethoscope and handgun. He State took over large tracts of fighters]! Imagine the reward of wrote in January that he would Syria and Iraq about a year ago helping a bro go back 2 batle!” be “posting medical advice to local doctors have been forced The group of medical students the mujahideen, including first to pledge allegiance or flee, aid who left Sudan to work for Islamic aid tips” along with “health workers have retreated, and the State in March drew international updates from the Islamic state” group is attempting to train or attention to what seems to have and the inevitable “analysis & recruit a health service workforce been a steady flow of Western advice regarding issues of jihad & made up of medical jihadists from educated Muslim doctors drawn aqeedah [belief].” around the world. to support the militant group. However, it was his tweet on 3 On 24 March Omar Hussain, a One, who describes himself January that gained most attention British man from High Wycombe, as a “muhajir [emigrant] medical from supporters of Islamic State, Tareq Kamleh, from Perth, whose tweeted: “O Muslim doctors, doctor” was tweeting under the who re-tweeted it as proof that the mother is German and father is stop treating the Kuffaar [infidels] alias Abu Layla al-Shami and group was able to run itself as a Palestinian (above). & come Sham [Syria] & help featured a photograph with a fully fledged state. Calling himself Abu Yousef “First glimpses of the new Al-Australi, he called on Muslim Kobane Mosul Dam Islamic state medical school . doctors to move to areas Hassakeh Mosul opening soon inshAllah in controlled by Islamic State, saying Mount Sinjar Aleppo Raqqa Raqqa,” he wrote, accompanied there is no lack of medicine or Deir al-Zour by a picture of a smart, cement equipment but qualified medical Baiji building with railings outside. care is needed. Tikrit SYRIA Qaim Later he added: “It’s great Yet little is known about what Baghdad to see that many people both healthcare is really being provided Ramadi Falluja brothers and sisters from a wide to the thousands of civilians who range of nationalities have applied give birth, get ill, and face death to the Medical College.” in the war zone that Islamic State IRAQ IS areas of influence. The recruitment push continued controls. Dominant as of April with a video released in April Reports from Mosul in Iraq that usurped the NHS logo and suggest that the fighters have replaced it with “ISHS.” It featured attempted to force female doctors an Australian paediatrician called to be fully covered, including 22 4 July 2015 | the bmj DOCTORS AND ISLAMIC STATE A group of medical students and doctors flew from Sudan to work in Syria in March, raising further questions about the influences that young students can come under while studying abroad university offers a qualification accepted by One student who studied medicine in Khar- the GMC. toum explained on social media that he went Parents of the students who went to Syria to study there not to get in touch with his roots explained that they saw the Sudanese medi- but because he had “missed out by a couple of cal school as a good way for their children to grades” on an offer from a London university qualify while also getting in touch with their to study medicine. roots. It is not known how many students He wrote on social media: “Had the choice from families with origins in countries such as of doing biomed but that don’t fit in my future Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, or Pakistan are now plans. Very close friend of mine already com- struggling against Islamic extremism that have studying in these countries, but new medical pleted his first year in Sudan. medical schools on the list—Afghanistan and schools have opened in some of those coun- “Checked the uni with the General Medical Yemen have six colleges each and Somalia tries, suggesting that this is a growing market. Council and they said a degree from their [sic] is has two. Syria has seven, including colleges in Pakistan, which provided 218 candidates for recognised in the UK. So AlHamdulilah [thanks the contested cities of Homs, Aleppo, and Deir a licence to work in the UK last year (more than be to god] still get to study medicine + it’s recog- Ezzor. Sources familiar with the Sudanese medi- any other country), has 90 colleges registered nised worldwide + in a Muslim c ountry.” cal world say that UMST does not have the same in the World Directory of Medical Schools. To practise medicine in Britain after study- academic reputation as Khartoum University’s It’s clear that some students are going to ing abroad students have to prove that they medical school, once known as the Kitchener foreign universities because they didn’t get have an “acceptable overseas qualification” School of Medicine. Nevertheless, the private the grades for their first choice of university. and then pass the Professional and Linguistic wearing gloves, while treating the worst war zones of recent patients. There are also reports times, from Bosnia to Afghanistan. of staff and patients being In Syria he started working in an segregated so that women can area controlled by the moderate only treat women and of female Free Syrian Army, which patrolled hospital staff being prevented large swathes of Aleppo, and his from working after dark. The biggest fear was the barrel bombs reports, based on un-named local being dropped by helicopters sources, cannot be verified. of the Syrian regime, but that changed on his last visit. Too dangerous to help “You don’t ever know as a As would be the case anywhere Westerner, how safe you’re really else in the world, amid going to be. All it takes is a phone “You don’t ever know, as a Westerner, how safe you’re really going to be. coordinated international call—and everyone has a mobile A knock at the door could be calling you for a casualty or to take you away” bombing and fighting on the phone. A call could go to Islamic David Nott, surgeon, London ground, the local population State, al-Nusra, or a faction of from Aleppo that Nott had worked the young British doctor who was has more than ordinary medical al-Qaeda. A knock at the door with decided to go on a diplomatic detained by regime forces at a needs. Yet even the hardiest aid could be calling you for a casualty mission to heal the rift. check point within a day of arriving workers have had to keep away or to take you away. That’s Islamic State “killed him, ripped in Aleppo and killed in custody. over the past year . the issue, your safety can’t be his face off, and dismembered him “You have to enter the country David Nott, a consultant general guaranteed, and not only because just because this poor doctor tried illegally from Turkey and the regime and vascular surgeon at the Royal of the conflict. It is a really, really to mend bridges,” Nott said. looks at you as a terrorist— now you Marsden, St Mary’s, and Chelsea dangerous place to go at the In most other conflicts “doctors are a terrorist to one side and an and Westminster hospitals, moment.” are always looked after and infidel to the other. This is far more returned from Syria last October In 2013, Nott said Aleppo treated with some reverence dangerous than other war zones.” and admits it is now too dangerous was full of Islamic State fighters because they are able to cure “You have to go to dangerous except for supporters of Islamic but they “weren’t as extreme as people and alleviate human places but I always think it’s going State. In the space of a few weeks they’ve become.” suffering,” Nott says.
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