How to Get Admission into FCPS?

By Zaryab Ahmed

WHAT IS FCPS?

FCPS stands for Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. FCPS is a firm that is responsible for the registration of the Postgraduate doctors of Pakistan. This means that once you have attained your bachelor’s in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), you are eligible to apply for a postgraduate degree.

This firm accounts for rules and regulations set for the doctors of our country; enrollment of doctors takes place through this firm as well as it conducts examination for the postgraduate doctors. FCPS is known to be the highest degree achieved by doctors in Pakistan.

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In recent times, the body responsible for all of this is CPSP (College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan). This takes part in registering for FCPS I, FCPS II, and MCPS. CPSP also enrolls doctors who are foreign qualified along with UK medical board, USA medical board, postgraduate medical degree, and an undergraduate medical degree.

College of Physicians and Surgeons basically deals with the promotion of the practice of general medicine, surgery with other specializations in the field. It conducts postgraduate degrees after doctors pass for FCPS and MCPS.

Eligibility Criteria:

• You have to have an MBBS degree or an equivalent qualification that should be registered with PMDC.

• House job of 1 year in a CPSP recognized institute out of which 6 months should be spent in your own particular specialization field.

• If the house job is done is lesser than the required amount, then this time period could be compensated with equal time in residency.

• You should have a 2 years residency period on any of the institutes recognized by CPSP.

Documents Required:

• You need original plus attested copies of the following documents attached.

• MBBS/BDS or any provisional certificate of Medical College.

• A valid certificate of PMDC (Pakistan Medical and Dental Council)

• If you are applying as a foreign candidate then you will need a valid registration certificate of your own country’s medical council which should be equated by PMDC. If the certificate is expired, then you must provide a fee receipt for the renewal of PMDC.

• You will need a one-year house job certificate from institutes recognized by PMDC which should be duly countersigned by the head of the council. Note that your house job must be completed one month before the examination.

• An Original/Attested photocopy of your CNIC

• Finally, scan the bank deposit fee and all the attested documents in pdf then proceed to fill and submit the application form.

NOTE:

The attesters should be one of the following:

• Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons with their fellowship number.

• Principal/Professor of the PMDC approved Medical College/Post graduate Medical Institute Medical Superintendent/ Head of Medical Institutions.

Fee Structure:

• The fee is around 25000/-.
• The application form consists of a challan form that you have to deposit in associated banks of CPSP or you can even deposit that in CPSP regional offices.
• You can get a draft in CPSP’s name from any bank.
• A recent option is to deposit the fee online through debit or credit card.

Fee Refund:

If you want to refund your fee due to any reason, you can do that before a specified date which will be mentioned in official notifications. 75% of the fee can be refunded to the candidate if:

• • Withdrawal application from the examination is received before the deadline
  • If the application is rejected by the CPSP in case of ineligibility.
  • Make sure that when you are applying for a refund, you should write your name, center, subject, bank receipt number.
  • This application for refund should be submitted to the portal.

• Note that the hard copy or email for a refund (withdrawal) will not be entertained.

• In all the other cases, the fee for withdrawal of examination will not be refunded in any way.

Changing of Subject/address/center After Submission of Application Form:

• if you want to do that, 1500/- are charged for this process.
• An application should be submitted on the eportal for the change in any of the things.
• A hard copy or email for this change shall not be entertained.

Online Application of FCPS:

You can apply for FCPS online for different sessions according to your preferences and convenience.

To apply online, click on the following link:

• Online Application Form for FCPS-I (For Pakistan)
• Once you click on the above-mentioned link, another window will appear and you will be asked to apply whilst filling the form with relevant information.
• FCPS exam has 2 steps which are:

STEP 1:

• Firstly, fill out the online application form.

• Then, select your registration type if you are a “fresh” candidate or a “repeater”.

• If you are a fresh candidate, you are supposed to enter your PMDC number and email address.

• If you are repeating, then you are supposed to enter your previous enrollment number assigned in your last exam.

• A verification code will be sent to you on your email address to confirm your email ID.

• You will have to put the verification code on the form, then you will be redirected to the actual form.

• Fill out the entire form with relevant information.

• When you are filling out the application form, be extra careful about the center of examination and the subject for specialization because if you do make a mistake somehow, it gets messier in order to alter that.

• Once you have filled the entire form, you will receive a pdf file with form number.

STEP 2

• In step 2, you are supposed to take the form number and the verification code generated before and

• Attach all the required documents; signed form, challan form, attested picture, etc (note that everything should be in pdf format)

• Then, submit the application.

NOTE:

Once you have submitted the form, you will receive a confirmation email. At the end of this email, there will be a link to the “eportal” with the username (form no.) and password (verification code). This will help you to access the eportal.

When all the documents are submitted online, nothing is deposited in the CPSP office but in case if you have a bank draft, you need to deposit that to the CPSP office.

Examination Schedule:

• The FCPS exam is held thrice a year in the months, March, July, and November.
• The theory-based examinations are held in different cities of the country like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, and Hyderabad.
• It should be noted that English is the medium of examination.
• If there is any change made to the date, the center of examination or the format of the examination will be informed by the college beforehand.
• The successful candidate in the examination of FCPS-I will be issued a letter of confirmation which will enable them to seek their training and placement in a specifically recognized training institute.
• It should be noted that the college has full rights to debar a candidate from any examination if they consider the candidate to be unfit in any way, whether he/she is using unfair means for the examinations or misconduct or indiscipline of any kind.

Format of FCPS Exam:

• The exam contains 2 theory papers (paper 1 and paper 2).
• Paper 1 contains MCQ based questions whereas paper 2 contains multiple true-false type questions, total questions in paper 2 are 75.
• The MCQ type paper will be equally divided into three parts which will be well defined into the following subjects: Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology. Along with these subjects, some basic allied medical sciences questions will also be included.
• The candidate will be required to secure a minimum percentage of the score in each of the sections mentioned above separately instead of just passing the aggregate.
• It should be noted that the college has full responsibility and the right to amend or alter any rules and regulations.
• If the college does take such actions on the interpretation of these regulations, it will wholly bind upon the candidate.

Duration of FCPS:

The duration of FCPS depends upon the specialization field chosen. Usually, it goes on for 4-5 years. The college is known to critically evaluate the standards and facilities provided to the trainees in the specific institutes to ensure that the trainee gets quality training and is rightly supervised.

As it is known to strengthen the trainee’s professional skills along with the training programs, it holds short courses and workshops which work on capacity building. This is mandatory for the trainees to join and act as a prerequisite for appearing in the exams. These workshops include:

• Research Methodology
• Basic Surgical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Biostatistics and Dissertation Writing
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
• Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS)
• Basic Life Support (BLS)
• Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO)
• Introduction to Computer and Internet.

When a trainee successfully completes his/her training, then he/she is eligible to appear in the final examinations. When the candidate passes that examination, then he/she is awarded with Fellowship/Membership of the college and granted the status of a “Specialist”.

First Fellowship Specialization Fields:

• Anesthesiology
• Anatomy
• Biochemistry
• Cardiac Surgery
• Cardiology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Hematology
• Community Medicine
• Dermatology
• Diagnostic Radiology
• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Gastroenterology
• General Surgery
• Hematology
• Histopathology
• Immunology
• Medical Oncology
• Medicine
• Microbiology
• Nephrology
• Neuro Surgery
• Neurology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Obstetrics & Gynecology
• Operative Dentistry
• Ophthalmology
• Oral & Maxillo-Facial Surgery
• Orthodontics
• Orthopedic Surgery
• OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGY (E.N.T)
• Pediatric Surgery
• Pediatrics
• Periodontology
• Pharmacology
• Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
• Physiology
• Plastic Surgery
• Prosthodontics
• Psychiatry
• Pulmonology
• Radiotherapy
• Thoracic Surgery
• Urology
• Virology

Second Fellowship Specialization Fields:

• Second Fellowship
• Breast Surgery
• Cardio-Thoracic Anesthesiology
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology
• Community and Preventive Pediatrics
• Critical Care Medicine
• Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
• Endocrinology
• Gynecological Oncology
• Infectious Diseases
• Interventional Cardiology
• Materno Foetal Medicine
• Neonatal Paediatrics
• Orbit and Oculoplastic
• Paediatric Cardiology
• Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology & Nutrition
• Paediatric Hematology Oncology
• Paediatric Infectious Diseases
• Paediatric Nephrology
• Paediatric Neurology
• Paediatric Ophthalmology
• Pain Medicine
• Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility
• Rheumatology
• Surgical Oncology
• Urogynecology
• Vascular Surgery
• Vitreo Retinal Opt

If you are looking for CPSP offices for any details or queries, here is a list to help you out.

CPSP Regional Offices

• CPSP Regional Office, Next To INMOL, Wahdat Road, Lahore – cpsplhr@super.net.pk Phone: 0092-42-5863455

• Armed Forces Institute Of Pathology, Rawalpindi – Phone: 0092-51-561-30077

• Pakistan Institute Of Medical Science, Islamabad – cpsp_islamabad@yahoo.com – Phone: 0092-51-850704

• Nishtar Medical College, Multan – cpspmul@mul.paknet.com.pk – Phone: 0092-61-513111

• Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad – cpsp@fsd.paknet.com.pk- Phone:0092-411-762846

• Quaid-e -Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur – Phone: 0092-631-884760

• Liaquat Medical College, Hyderabad – lmc@hyd.paknet.com.pk – Phone: 0092-221-771239-40

• Chandka Medical College, Larkana – cpsplrk@hotmail.com -Phone:0092-741-40224

• CPSP Regional Office Khyber Medical College, Peshawar – cpsppesh@yahoo.com – Phone:0092-91-844829, 0092-91-210041

• Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad – Phone:0092-5921-4081-9

• Sandenman Civil Hospital, Quetta – cpspqta@hotmail.com – Phone:0092-81-825287

• Regional office Nawabshah – regoffns@hyd.paknet.com.pk