Policy responses and statements
Consultation summary: Since 1 January 1997 it has been a legal requirement that, in order to take up - as opposed to continuing to be employed in – a consultant post (other than a locum consultant appointment) in a medical or surgical specialty in the UK health service, a doctor must be included in the Specialist Register. It is not possible to hold specialist registration without also holding full registration in the register of medical practitioners. The Specialist Register is maintained by the General Medical Council (GMC). Earlier this year the Government consulted on proposals to amend the relevant legislation which would enable the restoration of the existing specialist route (see Further Information below). Following this review the GMC has been invited to consult on a scheme for the registration of persons who were consultants before 1 January 1997. This consultation sets out the principles and eligibility criteria for the scheme. The introduction of the scheme is subject to the proposed legislative change receiving the necessary approval of parliament. Background: The legislation that enabled the creation of the Specialist Register – the European Specialist Medical Qualifications Order 1995 (the 1995 Order) – made taking up a consultant post (other than as a locum) in the NHS after 1 January 1997 conditional on the doctor having his or her name included in the Specialist Register. Those who were already consultants would be entitled to apply for specialist registration by virtue of their status as ‘existing specialists’. They could do so under so-called transitional arrangements that required them to apply before 1 December 1998, or later, if they satisfied ‘the Registrar that there was good reason for not applying by then’. On 30 September 2005 the Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board (PMETB) assumed the roles previously carried out by the Specialist Training Authority (STA) and the Joint Committee on Postgraduate Training for General Practice (JCPTGP) under the provisions of the General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2003 (the 2003 Order). The original 1995 Order having been revoked it was now the 2003 Order that specified the categories of doctors eligible for entry to the Specialist Register. However, existing specialists as defined in the 1995 Order were no longer among them. Any pre-1 January 1997 consultants seeking entry to the Specialist Register would henceforth need to satisfy PMETB, under Article 14 of the 2003 Order, that their past specialist training and/or qualifications met the present standards required for the award of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT). This mechanism was never intended for established senior consultants who are already in post and quickly proved to be inappropriate for specialists whose training had been undertaken so long ago. Accordingly, and following lobbying by the GMC and others, the Department of Health has agreed to restore the previous arrangements for those holding consultant posts in the NHS prior to 1 January 1997 by amending the 2003 Order by means of the latest Section 60 Order1. However, having been a consultant prior to 1 January 1997 will not of itself entitle a doctor to specialist registration: the GMC is required to publish a ‘scheme’ that will set the criteria to be considered in determining whether to include a person’s name in the Specialist Register. To a certain extent this change will reinstate the powers the GMC had prior to September 2005, although unlike then the GMC will have discretion over how it operates the new arrangement. This consultation sets out the details of how the arrangement will work. Download this consultation response as a .pdf
Copies of this response are available from: Lesley Lockhart, Tel: 0131 225 7324 ext 608 [17 December 2008]
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