Graduation, specialisation and future initiatives

Abstract

During November we had our annual graduation ceremony. As time goes on this is becoming a main event every year. It is a time for celebrating several things. First and foremost of course a celebration for the graduands, who, after three years of training and an intense assessment have graduated. But more importantly it is a reminder of where we are coming from. More than a decade ago we opted to put Family Medicine on the Specialist Register and soon afterwards we decided that specialisation should come with a well-recognised specialized programme which is externally reviewed. It was natural, as I usually point out, following our ‘Royal college’ culture, that we should follow the path of the MRCGP(INT). We now have more than fifty members with this qualification and the qualification process for existing members is in process. This is certainly a cause for celebration. Being called a speciality, for us, is not merely a term which is deserving of the speciality; it also follows a path of appropriate specialisation. As some of the graduates, who had done also the MRCP, realise, this exam is of an equivalent standard.