Seventy percent doctors have failed the MD/MS licensing examination conducted by the Nepal Medical Council on Saturday.

According to the NMC, only 71 doctors passed the test, among 235 candidates who took the exam. Without passing the MD/MS licensing assessment, a doctor cannot practise as a specialist.

NMC Registrar Dr Dilip Sharma said a majority of those who flunked Saturday’s test have failed multiple times before. He said there are candidates to have attended the examination more than five times.

Among the 164 doctors who failed the licence test, 111 got their masters from China, 

21 from the Philippines and 10 from the Russian Federation. Eight medical graduates from Nepal also failed the examination.

The high failure rate raises questions over the quality of education that the applicants got. The council should immediately remodel the licensing examination, said Dr Jagdish Prasad Agrawal, the dean at the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University. “We cannot risk people’s health at the hands of mediocre doctors.”

Dr Agrawal said the NMC should first conduct a theoretical examination for the postgraduate degree holders. Those who get through the entrance should be subjected to skill tests. “Only through a rigorous test can we be sure that the specialists meet the standards,” he said.

Students willing to study MD/MS abroad must pass the entrance examination of the university and should acquire an eligibility certificate from the NMC.