126 responses to “American University of Barbados Offers FREE Medical Attention”

1. 

   Georgie Porgie

   May 26, 2016 at 3:51 pm

   
   

   David
   I learned longtime that the only benefit of offshore schools to the hosts island is the INFLUX OF LONGSTAY (2 years) STUDENT TOURIST. What will happen is that many more rentals of apartments, houses will occur, and rents will rise alarmingly. This will also affect the ability of the populace to get reasonable places to rent.

   In St Kitts it was easy for me to rent a fairly well fiited out apartment next to OTI for EC 500 in 2002. In 2008 the cost had more than tripled to US600, and it was difficult to find a place.

   It is amazing that the government of Rarotonga in the Cooks refused SPSOM a charter to operate when I presented the facts about bogus offshore medical schools to their PM in an email. In contrast, we are hearing lots of rubbish in Barbados– a much richer country.

   Do not expect them to discuss the issues I raised. These guys will be getting cut backs for them and their friends. They ought to understand that medical students, though tourists in a sense, will be spending much less than they expect.

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2. 

   David

   May 26, 2016 at 4:30 pm

   
   

   Harry Husbands made mention of:

   1.Queen’s University School of Medicine 2.Barbados International School of Medicine 3.Washington University School of Medicine

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3. 

   Brathwaite

   May 26, 2016 at 4:37 pm

   
   

   Wait we really doing here wid this one? Of course dem politricans get dem cut and all that.

   So let dem students bring some money to the economy, den I don’t has to sell my piecea propraty.

   Are bajans going to get treat like gerbils or mice in a test environment by these wannabe docs? What exactly is the problem?

   I not hearing that there is a direct threat to us bajans healthcare.

   I hearing that people going mek some money and we need to mek real sure that everything is copecetate wid the certification and all dat but it don’t seem to be no killer docs on de loose.

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4. 

   Georgie Porgie

   May 26, 2016 at 6:05 pm

   
   

   David
   Here is a very interesting article by Heidi Chumley the executive dean and chief academic officer, American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC)- one of the so called big three offshore schools.

   U.S. medical school graduates aren’t enough to fill the physician shortage

   Every year around Match Day, medical and pre-med students alike worry about a rumored “residency cliff.” The theory is that the number of new medical school graduates will soon outstrip the existing inventory of residency positions, and the overflow applicants will be left in professional limbo.

   While that picture seems scary, it’s time for some good news. I’ve believed for years that this concern is more phantom than real, but now there is empirical evidence in the form of a data analysis by a respected source in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

   Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, a longtime observer of physician workforce trends, published a report in the NEJM examining recent and projected growth of U.S. medical school enrollment, compared to the rate of increase in residency program positions. Mullan concludes that while the number of graduates has begun catching up with the number of available positions, this gap is narrowing very slowly. In 2024, the number of available residency slots will still exceed the number of U.S. medical school graduates by around 4,500. That means an ample supply of postgraduate training positions for new MDs from not only U.S. schools but deserving international medical graduates as well.

   Put another way, residency positions are gradually becoming more competitive, but this is no reason to abandon a dream of becoming a physician; especially not when we as a nation face a growing shortage of physicians.

   A 2015 study puts this physician shortfall at as many as 90,000 doctors by the year 2025. This number helps put America’s health care problems into perspective. While U.S.-based medical schools are slowly increasing enrollment, they cannot alone make up the gap in the physician workforce. So do we then look to recruit doctors away from Africa, Asia or Latin America, contributing to the “brain drain” from less affluent countries? Thankfully we don’t have to.

   Physician Shortage-temp.jpg

   Many strong candidates are turned away from U.S. medical schools due to a lack of capacity and the resulting arbitrary cut-offs. International medical schools like mine — with a student body made up of mostly of U.S. citizens planning to practice in the U.S. — are doing their part to address the physician shortage by making more room for qualified American applicants. Many of my school’s graduates go on to become primary care physicians or to care for underserved populations — and some do both.

   Detractors of Caribbean medical schools have often exploited pre-med students’ residency anxiety to frighten them away. Mullan’s important report in NEJM should help lay that to rest.

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5. 

   Georgie Porgie

   May 26, 2016 at 6:08 pm

   
   

   HOWEVER THIS NOTE BY A ST GEORGE STUDENT ____ THE NUMBER ONE OOFSHORE SCHOOL EMPHASISES THE PROBLEMS THAT EVEN US CITIZENS WHO COME TO THESE SCHOOLS HAVE IN GETTING A JOB AFTER THEY GRADUATE< EVEN IF HIGH STEP SCORES

   Article excludes the amount of DO schools out there. And the amount of residency programs that want fully trained FMGS as cheap labor for 3 years.

   Despite all this reassurance. The Caribbean choice is gone. I graduated from SGU this year. Scored 230’s/220’s/CS no failures. Didn’t fail any of my classes, and graduated within 4 years. I applied to a 100 Psychiatry places to get 12 invites. A DO in my situation would apply to around 20 places and get 12 invites. They probably don’t even take the USMLE, but instead take the inferior COMLEX. Trust me… An average on Comlex is 500, and translates to around 210s on Step 1 (which is 50%tile on Comlex to like bottom 10-20%s on Step 1) Also they do rotations at non-greenbook places at a private practice with no real training (they will brag about doing IM rotations or Surgery rotations with no calls or weekends). So at the end of all this situation, I didn’t match. The majority of my places I interviewed ended up ranking DO’s/US MD’s higher. I know of 4 others in my situation from SGU and AUC that didn’t match Psychiatry this year with similar amount of interviews. I am also a US Citizen. As of right now, I am living at my parents place, applying to jobs. BTW it’s pretty tough to explain why a MD is applying for an entry job. I will be more then excited for a job now that just pays 40k a year. If I leave out my MD, I would have to explain 4 years gap in my resume.

   I don’t have a problem with the Top 3 Caribbean school. The island living conditions are a lot better then what some might say. Administration, and setting up my clinical rotations was no hassle. The biggest issue is that DO’s are appearing like rabbits, and they won the PR battle. A DO with 200s/210s are preferred over a SGU grad with 220s/230s. Also the DO can probably fail a test or two, and still match. We are discriminated heavily against. Some will say the only reason why we are in the Caribbeans are due to personality flaws. You score bad on the Steps… They assume that you aren’t intelligent enough to be a doctor in the first place, and that’s why you went to a different country for medical school. You do alright on the Steps… they assume you have personality flaws.

   I am warning people to avoid Caribbeans, not because of the school or even the quality of education. It’s the huge discrimination you will receive. Sometimes people will make you feel less then human, and more akin to an animal. In my rotations I notice some malignant places know the situation you are in as a IMG, so they will treat you worse then the DO’s/MD’s. If the same attending treat your colleagues worse, they will report to school, and pull out of the rotation slots. As an IMG, you keep quiet, because the school is trying to maintain as much rotation slots as they can.

   Of course Heidi Chumley is going to say this on her article. It’s because she is the executive dean and chief academic officer of AUC. She has a bias in maintaining the school is not falling.

   For the love of God, don’t come to the Caribbean schools. It use to be you score 210’s or 220’s your chances of matching is solid (no guarantees of course, because nothing in life is guaranteed). Now the chances of matching is reduced, and more people are slipping. In fact I know someone with 210’s not matching FM this year, all he had was 3 interviews and he applied to a 100 places, US Citizen from SGU also. No fails BTW.

   Normally I would keep quiet, but I just want to warn people out there. There are already tons of posts, but they are from Canadians that need J1 or people with failures. Well I am a US citizen with no failures, that didn’t match with decent scores. Hindsight I shouldn’t have done this. I should have done PA school or honestly tried for DO. Around 2012 when I matriculated it use to be SGU = DO. There was some places that preferred us, and main reason for DO was the private match. Now it’s automatic DO>>>>>>>Top 3 no matter what. Even a brand new for private like RVU have a better reputation then us.

   There will be some old school IMGs that say it’s still viable, but that’s before DO’s were this prolific. Also, you will hear some stories about some people with low scores matching, but remember… What happens when you don’t match? So just a counterpoint to this article.

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6. 

   Georgie Porgie

   May 26, 2016 at 6:11 pm

   
   

   THIS ARTICLE FROM BARBADOS TODAY EMPHASISES WHY WE CANT HAVE CUBAN TRAINED DOCTORS RUNNING AMOCK IN BARBADOS

   Sir Henry defends policy towards Cuban-trained doctors
   Added by Sandy Deane on May 26, 2016.
   Saved under Health Care, Local News

   inShare
   Barbadian doctors who receive their medical training in Cuba must be prepared to sit the Caribbean Association of Medical Councils (CAMC) examination to practise locally, Independent Senator Professor Sir Henry Fraser insisted today.

   Amid public calls for clarity on the treatment of the Cuban-trained doctors, Sir Henry, a former Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, attempted to explain the issue during debate on the Caribbean Accreditation Authority Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (Incorporation) Bill, 2016 in the Upper House.

   Sir Henry said the challenges would be best resolved if Cuban authorities worked with the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP).

   He noted that while Cuba has an outstanding record in public health care, some aspects of its medical training were found wanting.

   “Cuba’s great reputation for medical training lies in its excellent public health programme and not in the clinical skills with which the students graduate. There are so many students being trained in Cuba and so many nurses, and the health system is so well provided for in so many areas that their students graduated apparently without the ability to set up an intravenous line or to take a blood sample or to do other clinical procedures our students are all taught to do during the medical course and which practising doctors in Barbados must be able to do,” he told fellow senators.

   The retired doctor insisted that the medical faculty at the UWI had developed its training programme to the highest standards and “to be oriented towards the society of Barbados, towards the diseases that are particularly prevalent in Barbados and towards issues that are both medical, social and financial”.

   Sir Henry said Cuban graduates who took the examinations in Jamaica had relatively low pass rates when compared to international students and the entry requirement for Cuban medical schools were below the standard requirement for students entering the UWI medical faculty.

   “Some students went with CXC [Caribbean Examination Council] results, some students went with A Levels that were not scientific. So you could imagine the challenge these students had studying in Cuba without adequate preparation and background in science subjects.”

   The Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies also expressed concern that students who had to spend a year learning Spanish were sent to country hospitals in the eastern end of the island instead of the more established facilities in the capital, Havana.

   “When we interviewed the students, Barbadians and Jamaicans who were studying in Cuba, they all said there was a big difference in the standard of teaching facilities and accommodation . . . that most of them were constantly applying for transfers in Havana,” he said.

   He further argued it was “particularly disadvantaging to send Barbadians to Cuba for a programme that would take seven years” instead of the five years spent studying here.

   “The simple fact is unless the medical universities in Cuba subject their performance to the CAAM-HP, graduates will continue to have to take the CAMC exams, “ Sir Henry said.

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7. 

   Hants

   May 26, 2016 at 8:15 pm

   
   

   THE GASTROENTEROLOGY UNIT of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has received over $200 000 worth of equipment from the Legacy Foundation Charity.

   http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/81660/charity-makes-donation-hospital#sthash.9bFQGXRS.dpuf

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8. 

   David

   May 26, 2016 at 8:18 pm

   
   

   @Hants

   This is good, the QEH needs all the philanthropy it can attract.

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9. 

   Georgie Porgie

   May 27, 2016 at 10:39 am

   
   

   it is noteworthy that valuemd took down my original post there on this topic with my link to BU and banned me from valuemd for a month

   it seems to me that wrong will prevail in this matter

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10. 

    David

    May 27, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    
    

    @GP

    What was your original post? Do you have it saved?

    When did you post it?

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11. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 12:37 pm

    
    

    Same as original post on this thread on BU
    POSTED IT SUNDAY

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12. 

    Well Well & Consequences

    May 27, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    
    

    GP…I thought it was only the lawyers had their secret society.

    Did I not warn you that the equity companies in the US are funding tha AUB scam for the indians…many thousands of them have US citizen relatives who could access the funding, many of those doctors also have US citienship and can access the funding themselves……you do not ever, want to go up against that particular brand of animal.

    That’s the only way they could have survived since the Saba scandal or the whole scam would have been shut down completely.

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13. 

    Well Well & Consequences

    May 27, 2016 at 1:38 pm

    
    

    Read it again GP.

    Well Well & Consequences May 23, 2016 at 3:23 PM #
    “So somehow Saba University transitioned from being a non-profit meant to serve the medical education needs of the Netherlands Antilles to a for-profit owned by US private equity firms (and apparently now focused on serving Americans.)”

    GP….the above I got from the Saba article, might be how the med school in Barbados can call itself an American med school. ..if it’s owned by US equity firms, they got private loans from US entities, still has to be checked out though…it always a scam going.

    Well Well & Consequences May 23, 2016 at 3:27 PM #
    Yeah..GP, I remember the truck bombing in Lebanon, they probably checked out the med school already, as I said, if it’s some equity loan scam going between the med school and a US entity, unless US laws are being broken or US citizens complain about the med school, it will be ignored.

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14. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 2:22 pm

    
    

    Well well
    I have long understood that offshore medical schools are scams that are about ripping off would be doctors– most of whom don’t belong in medical school.

    At AAIMS in Jamaica they wanted me to go and live off campus, because I WAS TOO CLOSE TO THE STUDENTS……..BECAUSE I CARED TOO MUCH ABOUT THE STUDENTS

    As I said above the only possible benefit of a bogus school to Bim is some increased grocery sales, and increased house rentals with an increase in house rents- which will affect the locals seeking places to rent adversely.

    Barbadians must be vigilant and ensure that they do not use our clinical facilities for their purposes or our people as guinea pigs for the school.

    Instead of trying to defend my post on ValueMD they had it taken down.

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15. 

    Pieceuhderockyeahright

    May 27, 2016 at 5:54 pm

    
    

    @ Dr. GP

    Very few people realize the power of social media and the power that it has to obliterate the political and social hegemonies of the world.

    I will not go to the extreme of China regarding its control of the internet, I will not go even to that Rooney fellow with that colossal mistake.

    Let me just remain with something as simple as the picture of Ninjaman at the Top of Broadstreet watching that imaginary TV which was the side of a box with a tv marked on it.

    One uh de people at de church took it so I will ask for it (heheheheheheheh)

    When a man is said to be a buller or a woman a lesbian up until 15 years ago that statement died a natural death or it was only said in hushed tones or Gearbox would repeat it under the influence of rum.

    Enter Social Media.

    You noticed that Chewbacca talking masks thing, it has gone viral over $ million views

    and immediately yu can imagine what this did with Chewbacca sales for the company Kohls?

    This thing in Cyberspace that like the Atom Bomb and Hiroshima and that at Nagasaki.

    It goes out there like a being travelling in 7 dimensions, x, y, z, the future, the past? (for the metaphysicist Hopi) and into being (yet being in GOD, BEING FINITE & INFINITESIMAL, IT DOES NOT TOUCH GOD.)

    It has a power that all people fear

    AND people who are dishonest, PLAYING TO BE HONEST, BECAUSE OF THEIR SECRETS, FEAR IT MOST,

    Oppenheimer states “…I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

    I consider the internet like that, a living yet simultaneously inanimate thing, a nothingness that like a surgeon’s scalpel brings life and death, depending on who wields it.

    Here is another plagiarism woeful sinner of cut and paste that i am.

    Claran Cannon Minister in Dublin states “However, in some cases the fear of social media arises from “transfer of communicative power from the few to the many” because of the advent of social media sites.”

    “There are some in the political sphere, both practitioners and media commentators, who are distinctly uncomfortable with this recent transfer of power,” he writes.

    “They are losing control of the “message” and feel challenged, now that the power to communicate with many is no longer the preserve of the few.

    “Some calls for regulation of social media are well intentioned. My fear is that those who would like to regain control of public discourse could exploit the genuinely held concerns of others to do exactly that.”

    Gearbox’s days are gone, Eric Fly, of “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” fame (that is the only invocation that nullifies all laws of gathering for a meeting under the constitutuion of Barbados, Eric Fly Sealy and his megaphone will never come again, but the internet is going to be with us until the advent and supplanting by telepathy.

    Post on, my Brother at Arms, post on. the sting of the mamba can kill an elephant, so we must be most venomous to these serpents that walk on two legs amongst us,

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16. 

    Hants

    May 27, 2016 at 6:11 pm

    
    

    @ GP and Piece,

    http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/be-careful-about-valuemd-forum.906790/

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17. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 8:42 pm

    
    

    Hants
    What was posted there is quite true about Value MD
    .
    ValueMd was around since February 2003. A fellow called LS Wiltshire along with Azskeptic used it to bring IUHS and UHSA to its knees, but stupidly stopped posting against them in 2005 and they resurrected.

    uhsa tried to set up a meeting with azskeptic in the hop of injuring him in some way.I told him not to go.
    They sent a lawyer to my home in 2003 soon before I emigrated, and again they sent some one around Easter 2004…..God knows why, for I was not there.

    Since 2009 ValueMD has lost its influence. It is no longer a vibrant site, because you can not tell the truth. Once I got an infraction for quoting Paul (the apostle). If you speak the truth they remove you post and ban you temporarily or permanently.

    When you have a thread that has like 18,000 hits the school that you are telling the truth about will complain — they say thy dont get money from the schools but clearly the schools pay them They then complain and Value MD will lock the thread so that it cant be kept on the front page.

    LS Wiltshire along with Zee truth and Prausnitz killed SPSOM AND JBGDL BY JUST TELLING THE TRUTH ……….. just telling the truth

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18. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 8:54 pm

    
    

    IF YOU GO TO THIS THREAD ON VALUE MD YOU WILL SE THAT BOTH PIECE AND I ARE CORRECT ABOUT WHY AUB WANT TO HIJACK LOCAL POLYCLINICS FOR THEIR PURPOSES

    http://www.valuemd.com/american-university-barbados-school-medicine-aub-clinicals/237964-current-aub-students-rotations.html

    wE ALL READY HAVE OUR NURSING STUDENTS AND UWI MEDICAL STUDENTS ROTATING IN OUR POLYCLINICS

    WHY MUST WE CONGEST AND POLUTE OUR POLYCLINICS WITH THESE PARASITES

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19. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 8:55 pm

    
    

    PERHAPS SOME BU FOLK COULD REGISTER ON VMD AND GENTLY POST THEE SENTIMENTS THERE WITHOUT CALLING ANY NAMES

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20. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 9:55 pm

    
    

    SENATOR WALCOTT: CLARITY NEEDED ON ACCREDITATION OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN THE REGION
    Fri, 05/27/2016 – 12:00am Barbados1
    OPPOSITION Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott says there still needs to be clarity about the accreditation of medical facilities operating in the region. One of them he says, is the American University of Barbados (AUB).
    His comments came in the Honourable Senate on Wednesday, where he debate on the Caribbean Accreditation Authority (Education in Medicine and other Health Professions) (CAAM-HP) (Incorporation) Bill 2016.

    According to Dr. Walcott, “…In perusing the records of Caribbean Association of Medical Councils (CAMC), I noted that the AUB has not fulfilled the accreditation requirements. It applied, it submitted some information two years ago was asked to submit additional information and this has not yet been forthcoming.”

    “So as it stands today the American University of Barbados operating in Barbados has not been accredited by CAAM-HP in terms of Barbadian students attending. It would obviously mean they would not be entitled to automatic registration to practice medicine in Barbados when they complete their studies at that institution. That will then be a matter for the CAMC and a series of exams which they will have to sit and pass to become eligible for registration in Barbados.”

    The former Minister of Health gave full support to the CAAM-HP to which Barbados has been a signatory since 2005 saying that the establishment of the authority will provide the assurance to the public, students, professionals that the Undergraduate programmes being offered in the region meet appropriate national and international standards.

    He explained that as it relates to the global registration of training facilities in medicine and other fields, the World Federation for Medication Education and the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research were established, to create standards and regularise training in medicine. “And the first Authority to be assessed by this new body was the CAAM-HP and they were very successful.”

    He explained that the policies and procedures are in accordance with internationally accepted best practice.

    Dr. Walcott stressed that the Accreditation Authority deals with standards for training while the CAMC deals with the registration of graduates to practice in member countries

    NOTE 1 AUB has not fulfilled the accreditation requirements of Caribbean Association of Medical Councils (CAMC)
    2 As it stands today the American University of Barbados operating in Barbados has not been accredited by CAAM-HP

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21. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 10:20 pm

    
    

    CAAM-C is, the body that is the legally constituted body established in 2003 under the aegis of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), empowered to determine and prescribe standards and to accredit programmes of medical, dental, veterinary and other health professions education on behalf of the contracting parties in CARICOM.

    Since you have to meet certain minimum standards in order for your degree to be worth anything…it was to address this that CAAM-HP was established.”

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22. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 10:30 pm

    
    

    ROLE OF CAM C

    http://www.caam-hp.org/documents/conference/9_Registration-Licensing…The%20Role%20of%20CAMC_Spencer,%20Howard.pdf

    jUST CANT FIND THE SITE WHERE THEY LIST THE SCHOOLS THAT THEY ACCREDIT
    NOTE THAT VERY FEW MEDICAL SCHOOLS IN THE AREA ARE ACCREDITED– AUB IS NOT ONE

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23. 

    Georgie Porgie

    May 27, 2016 at 10:38 pm

    
    

    CAAM C WEBSITE
    http://www.caam-hp.org/

    Note the schools accredited by CAAM C
    http://www.caam-hp.org/assessedprogrammes.html

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24. 

    Colonel Buggy

    May 28, 2016 at 10:33 pm

    
    

    Georgie Porgie May 27, 2016 at 2:22 PM #

    Barbadians must be vigilant and ensure that they do not use our clinical facilities for their purposes or our people as guinea pigs for the school.
    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
    Beware of Greeks,or Brits or Yanks , bearing gifts.Well remembered an incident during an operation,when a new drug was used on men in my Company. The only two persons who were not affected by the outcome of this drug, were the only two persons who had opted not to take it. The Medical Officer (MO) and the RAMC Medic.

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25. 

    Due Diligence

    June 20, 2016 at 2:30 pm

    
    

    Here we go again.

    http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/06/19/offshore-solution-for-medical-internship/

    Boyce is talking – is Donville behind this recruitment of new offshore business?

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26. 

    Georgie Porgie

    June 20, 2016 at 2:41 pm

    
    

    DD
    WE HAVE LOOKED AT THIS ON MEDICAL CORNER

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