Should be fairer and more educationally relevant

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It is still less than a quarter of a century since vocational training for general practice in the United Kingdom became compulsory, though informal training is as old as medicine itself. The present arrangements, which require registered medical practitioners to have two years' experience in certain specialties and a year of vocational training in a training practice, were satisfactory for most trainees who graduated from British medical schools. The arrangements lacked flexibility, however, and as new developments in general practice arrived, some cracks started to show. As a result directors of postgraduate general practice education have now taken full responsibility (including budgetary responsibility) for managing vocational …