History of Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons
Excellence is the Only Mark

Prelude

Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons has been the pioneer in developing post-graduate medical education in this country. Historically, the College bears a heritage to College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan of which it was the eastern wing. Following the independence of Bangladesh, the College was recreated as a statutory body by a Presidential order, later on ratified by an act of the parliament, to steer postgraduate medical education of a vastly populated, poorly resourced and war ravaged country. With the grace of Almighty and under an ever-unfolding leadership of its fellows, the College has achieved the iconic status in the field of postgraduate medical education of this country. It has definitely been able to set a mark for others to cherish and chase.

Background

The Government of the Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh constituted an adhoc committee of the College with Professor K S Haque as the President in 1972. All fellows of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan who hailed from Bangladesh were admitted as the founder fellows. With great endeavours and untiring efforts, these people were able to hold the first examination in July 1972. A memorable and mighty move was the shift of the College to its own premises at Mohakhali in January, 1982. The College owes this achievement to its the then president Prof. MA Matin.

Formation and Administration

The College is constituted by its founder fellows, fellows without examination, honorary fellows and fellows admitted on passing the prescribed examination. Fellows elect 16 councillors and the government nominate 4 councillors to govern the College.
Academic activities of the College are carried out under twelve faculties- faculty of Basic Sciences, faculty of Medicine, faculty of Surgery, faculty of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, faculty of Paediatrics, faculty of Psychiatry, faculty of Radiology and Radiotherapy, faculty of Ophthalmology, faculty of Anaesthsiology, faculty of Haematology and faculty of Otolaryngology. Their main functions are to make recommendations on academic activities within their jurisdiction and conduct teaching and training.

Premise and Accommodation

The campus of the College is situated over three acres of land at Mohakhali, Dhaka. The ground floor of the presently three-storied building accommodates the administrative offices including the President and Secretary's suite and the museum. The first floor houses the library, the auditorium, the council room, a large examination cum classroom and a prayer space. Tow examination halls are situated on the third floor. There is a beautiful floral garden in front and a large lawn at the backyard.
Construction of a new academic building on the southern side of the main building is underway and has been planned to be 10 storied. When completed this wing will be the center for all academic activities of the College and also house the fellows' dormitory.

Activities

Teaching: A four-week course and weekend courses in basic science is conducted for FCPS part-I examinees. The four-week courses are held twice a year well ahead of the ensuing examination. The weekend courses continue throughout the year on Thursdays and Fridays except in the months of January, June, July and December. Orientation courses are also held for part-II examinees.

Examinations

Fellowship and Membership examinations are held twice a year, in the month of January and July. Fellowship and membership both are offered in the subject of Internal Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstertics and Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, Radiology, Radiotherapy, Psychiatry, Anaesthesiology. Fellowship alone is offered in Physical Medicine, Haematology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Histopathology, Dermatology & Venereology. Membership alone is offered in Forensic Medicine, Dental Surgery, Clinical Pathology and Family Medicine. Recently, Fellowships have also been introduced in Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, Paediatric Nephrology, Neonatology, Urology and Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics.
Examinations follow delicate evaluation and scoring techniques that are very unique to this College. This helps to produce fellows and members with very high grades of knowledge and skill to match the needs of medical profession. The final fellowship examination also requires acceptance of a dissertation undertaken by the candidates.

Continuing Professional Development

Regular fortnightly programmes aim at fellows refreshing and capacity building. Meetings are also held on different matters of interest and contemporary issues.

Overseas Exchange of Expertise

The College has established a two-way exchange programme of medical experts sponsored by ODA of the United Kingdom. The British Council and WHO also sponsor exchange of examiners in different specialties between the BCPS and the Royal Colleges of UK and also with regional countries like India, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, Thailand, Singapore and Nepal.

Awards

The College confers fellowship and membership awards. Fellowship is awarded in three ways: Fellowship through examinations, Fellowship without examinations and Honorary Fellowship.
By now, 103 persons have been awarded fellowships without examination while 36 others have received honorary fellowships. So far over 35 foreign nationals have received such fellowships. The total number of fellowships and memberships awarded on passing examinations are 1534 and 1311 respectively.
Memberships are awarded on passing a prescribed examination.

Overseas Recognition

The qualifications conferred by the College are recognized for the purpose of registration, job, higher education and training in many different countries of the World. Presently, the Royal Colleges of UK exempt the fellows of this College from passing its part-one examinations and allow direct entry into the part-two examinations. The College similarly reciprocates the Royal Colleges of UK by exempting its fellows and members from the part-I examinations of fellowship and enrolls for the part-II examinations. BCPS has similar reciprocity with the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan.

Heritage

By the grace of Almighty and by the wisdom and hard work of the fellows and Councillors, this College has built a rich heritage in not only philosophical and conceptual aspects but also in academic and service spheres. The country largely owes its specialist medical practice to this College. Most of the medical teachers are also the fellows and members of this College. Besides working in major specialties of medical science, fellows and members of this College have undertaken to diverse other subspecialties and have pioneered their practice and development in this country. Today, there is hardly any corner of this country where a product of this College is not engaged in humanitarian medical services and its development. There are also fellows and members working in other parts of the globe having carried with them the fervour and fame of this College. Expectedly in the years to come the riches in heritage shall continue to grow.  

Future

The College is in the process of introducing fellowships in further subspecialties including an ambitious infrastructure building effort is also underway.

Undergraduate medical education in this part of the Subcontinent was initiated in the mid-forties. Medical graduates passing out from medical Colleges were largely depended on British Royal Colleges for pursuing higher clinical education. A need for creation of a College similar in functions as the Royal Colleges was long felt but could not be materialized until the number of people capable of conducting this enormous task has increased to a level. Leading members of the Profession from this part of the subcontinent under the initiative of Lt. Gen. WA Burki, the then Minister of Health and Population Control of Pakistan, created the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan under an ordinance in October 1962. Forty-five distinguished fellows of the Royal Colleges of England were nominated by an ordinance to be the founder fellows of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. Of the forty five founder fellows, nine were from the then East Pakistan. Twenty fellows were elected from a council in which four were from East Pakistan. To govern the College effectively Lt. Gen. WA Burki was elected as the founder President of the College.

Shortly, the College worked out requisites for its designed courses, outlined formalities for examinations and set up a mechanism that could confidently carryout its functions. The first fellowship examination was held at Karachi in October, 1965. In the same year the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research came into being at Dhaka and began enrolling students for the fellowship examinations. An office space of eighty square feet was set up in the annex building of Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research (IPGM&R) in the old Dhaka University with a Clark and a Peon to serve the needs of Postgraduate students from this part of the country. The lone elected Vice-President of the College used to sit in his Dhaka Medical College Hospital Chamber.

On 6th June 1972, a Presidential Ordinance later enacted by the parliament provided a statutory status to the College. An adhoc body was formed by the thirty Royal College Fellows of England and twenty-one Fellows of Pakistan College of Physicians and Surgeons as founder Fellows of BCPS in the same month of 1972. Professor K.S. Haque nominated by Govt. as adhoc President of BCPS. Under the leadership of Professor K.S. Haque with great efforts and endeavours first Fellowship examination conducted in July 1972 in four Major subjects namely Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Ophthalmology. External examiners came from abroad. First annual general meeting of the College was held in December 1972 and Professor K.S. Haque elected as the first elected President of the College and there on College went on to a full pace that continues to gather momentum even today. At present College is offering Fellowship in twenty-one major subjects and equal number in Membership. From January 2004 College is going to introduce Fellowship in 15 super-specialties. College moved from hired place to its own location in January 1982.

Efforts the College had assumed a formal shape that now gathers girth under an ever unfolding heritage of leadership.