Education and debate

Harmonisation of specialist training in Europe: is it a mirage?

^a Whipps Cross Hospital, London E11 1NR

For the past 18 years there has been a proliferation of European committees, boards, associations, colleges, and working groups set up to promote the harmonisation of specialist training in Europe. It has been taken as read that this objective is desirable. The fact that these bodies have achieved remarkably little is telling, and it is time to question their activity. There are good practical reasons behind the evolution of Europe's disparate training schemes, and the arguments for retaining diversity rather than continuing to strive for homogeneity are persuasive.

Harmonisation of specialist training is a concept that has pervaded--even dominated--European medical bodies for at least a quarter of a century. The adoption of the medical directives (75/362/EEC and 75/363/EEC) in 1976, and the resulting legal equivalence between basic and specialist qualifications awarded in all member states of the European Community, reinforced the notion of harmonisation in the . . . [Full text of this article]

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Harmonising specialist training in Europe

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