Foundation year for newly qualified doctors: GMC assessment of junior doctors' competency is inadequate or inconsistent

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.697-c

BMJ 2005;331:697-698 (24 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7518.697-c

Letter

Foundation year for newly qualified doctors

GMC assessment of junior doctors' competency is inadequate or inconsistent

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—In his article on the new UK foundation programme,Hays says that assessment will focus on practical aspects ofmedical work rather than examinations.¹ An examination alreadyexists, however, that is explicitly set to correspond with thelevel of knowledge expected of a doctor at the end of foundationyear 1.

This is the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board Test(PLAB), administered by the General Medical Council to assesswhether international medical graduates have the ability topractise safely as senior house officers in UK hospitals.² Ittakes the form of a written paper (part 1) and an objective,structured, clinical examination (part 2). Pass marks for thepart 1 extended matching question (EMQ) examinations in 2004ranged from 59.6% to 65.5% (Jo Mullin, GMC PLAB test section,personal communication, 2004).

We conducted an audit of UK graduates taking up senior houseofficer posts in accident and emergency . . . [Full text of this article]

Nicholas J Matheson, senior house officer

nickmatheson@yahoo.com
Homerton University Hospital, London E9 6SR

Alex Burns, senior house officer, Katherine Henderson, consultant in accident and emergency medicine

Homerton University Hospital, London E9 6SR