Time to think again

Oliver Cromwell's great plea for second thoughts, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken” echoes through this week's BMJ.

The first plea comes from Richard Wakeford in his letter about the GMC's proposals for assessing medical competence, in particular the proposed summative assessment of every doctor every five years (p 1220). He worries that the process is potentially unfair and inaccurate and “very expensive.” He suggests instead a paper based assessment exercise of at most a day's duration. This he claims would be “accurate, …