College News - May 2012RCPE Comment on HoC Health Committee Report on Education, Training and Workforce PlanningCommenting on the publication of the Select Committee’s report, Dr Neil Dewhurst, President of the RCPE, said, “The RCPE welcomes this report which highlights many areas that we have raised concerns about in the past. The timetable for implementation of the HEE/LETB system is less than a year away and it is crucial that greater clarity is provided regarding how the deaneries will operate in order that on-going operational problems caused by this uncertainty are not compounded. “We support the Committee's call for more accurate workforce data, the need to clarify the role of the Centre for Workforce Intelligence with regard to workforce planning and look forward to seeing the Government's response to this report”. Boarding in Scotland: SurveyThe College is involved in high level discussions with government regarding the practice of transferring medical patients into non-medical wards primarily to cope with the numbers of acute admissions (boarding). In recent months a number of Fellows from around Scotland have reported significant and sustained increases in boarding at a time when the Scottish Government has been reducing the number of beds in acute medical units and the published national data suggests acute admissions are falling. In parallel, it is widely recognised that the quality of data on acute admissions is poor and that local data is not collected consistently. Against this background, the College has today issued a survey to practising Fellows and Members in Scotland to obtain snapshot data on this issue.
Clinical Excellence AwardsFellows in England and Wales may be interested to learn that Simon Burns, Minister of Heath, has asked the Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards (ACCEA) to proceed with the 2012 Clinical Excellence Awards (CEA) round. For clarity, this decision relates to ACCEA and so applies to the scheme in England and Wales only. No decision about the 2012 round has been made in Scotland and Northern Ireland. As will be recalled, the Doctors and Dentists’ Remuneration Body (DDRB) has produced a report on the future of CEAs which has been with Ministers for some time. We understand that this is likely to be published in June with the intention that there is discussion about the proposals. MRCP(UK) Officer VacancyThe Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK is seeking to appoint a Medical Secretary to the MRCP(UK) Specialty Question Writing Groups. The appointment is for five years and is equivalent to 1PA a week for which the post holder’s Trust will be reimbursed. The post is open to Fellows of the three Colleges based in the UK and practising in a medical specialty. The closing date for applications is Monday 11 June 2012.
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