The Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) has fully accredited the University of the West Indies’ Medical Programme, lauding it for its “outstanding students, enthusiastic and committed teachers including residents (house staff).
In a letter to the Vice Chancellor of the UWI, Professor Nigel Harris, the Board of CAAM-HP noted that “graduates of the MBBS course of UWI, achieve high international standards at the time of graduation.”
This is the first medical programme to be accredited by the newly created (2004) CAAM-HP which was established by CARICOM as a Regional Accreditation Body for medical programmes in the Caribbean after the General Medical Council (GMC) of England, advised it would no longer be responsible for accreditation of medical schools outside of Britain and the European Union.
Accreditation of the UWI culminates a year long process that began in July 2005, with a comprehensive internal review of the UWI Medical Programme at its four sites – Mona (Jamaica), St. Augustine (Trinidad), Cave Hill (Barbados), and the Nassau Campus (Bahamas).
The internal review was conducted by academic staff, students, medical residents and University administrators, and it examined in depth areas such as the governance and administration of the programme, medical students services, the educational programme, educational resources, academic staff and the internship programme.
A full report was prepared by the UWI institutional team and submitted to CAAM-HP, following which a site visit to assess the Programme at the four sites was made by a committee of international medical educators, led by Professor David Hawkins, Secretary, Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools.
Other members of the site visit team included Dr. Emmanuel Cummings, (Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences – University of Guyana), Professor Roger Green, (Former Dean, University of Manchester, England), Dr. Patrick Rooney (Chair, Department of Clinical Skills, St. George’s University, Grenada) and Dr. Joanne Bates (Senior Associate Dean for Education, University of British Columbia).
The Site Visit Team prepared a comprehensive report of its findings and submitted them to the Board of CAAM-HP, which made its decision to accredit the UWI Medical Programme at its July 7-8, 2006 meeting.
