I dearly wish my first post didn't have to be bad news---but bad it is neehow!
Our beloved Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the esteemed College with the Royal Charter is now being accused of certain unsavoury goings on. Its all hush hush and behind closed doors at the college but the medical media is reeling under the onslaught of tales of woe and discrimination being rife within the RCGP.
Pulse, an esteemed GP online magazine in the UK has been reporting about potential bias in the Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) conducted by the RCGP and which International Medical Graduates(IMGs) are failing left right and center The first inkling that something was amiss started being reported in early November when Pulse said here that the RCGP could face legal action due to the huge differential in pass rates between local 'white' candidates and IMG's though both went through the same selection process and identical three year training rotations.
This article brought forth an unprecedented number of comments from local and IMG medical doctors alike. On its pages are a never before heard tale of woe and perceived discrimination of GP trainees who feel they are in a rut out of which an exit is impossible.
Over the past several months it had become blatantly obvious to any cursory observer that something was amiss - especially when doctors with excellent feedback from patients during their GP years and excellent scores at the Applied Knowledge test started failing the CSA in droves. This became excruciatingly painful when they were later booted out of their training schemes, thousands of pounds out of pocket and jobless. The only common factor in all these cases were that these candidates were IMG's and predominantly male.
Background investigation and hear say point to the fact that the bar for CSA was raised again in 2010. The candidate now had to pass in all 13 stations which were marked by a single examiner with no videoing or appeals process. The stations were simulated surgeries with professional actors role playing patients.
From the comments on Pulse it is obvious that some of the actors are far from fair in divulging information to the doctor and some examiners may fail terribly under closer scrutiny.
But the key reason for this mass failure seems to stem from the fact that the Clinical Skills Assessment is anything but. It has been designed to enable only high end English communicators to pass the exam. And as such the trainers are woefully under equipped to help the failing trainee as this fact has probably not been divulged to them.
Recently the BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) has decided to take up the issue on behalf of all the suffering IMG's irrespective of ethnic origin. We wish them all success in their pursuit for justice.
Good to read : theriskyshift.com - Black and Minority Ethnic Doctors within the British National Health Service: What can History tell us?
Add on: It has just come to my notice that Pulse had apparently raised this issue here as early as in January 2011. And here we are one year later still reeling from its after effects.
Our beloved Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the esteemed College with the Royal Charter is now being accused of certain unsavoury goings on. Its all hush hush and behind closed doors at the college but the medical media is reeling under the onslaught of tales of woe and discrimination being rife within the RCGP.
Pulse, an esteemed GP online magazine in the UK has been reporting about potential bias in the Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) conducted by the RCGP and which International Medical Graduates(IMGs) are failing left right and center The first inkling that something was amiss started being reported in early November when Pulse said here that the RCGP could face legal action due to the huge differential in pass rates between local 'white' candidates and IMG's though both went through the same selection process and identical three year training rotations.
This article brought forth an unprecedented number of comments from local and IMG medical doctors alike. On its pages are a never before heard tale of woe and perceived discrimination of GP trainees who feel they are in a rut out of which an exit is impossible.
Over the past several months it had become blatantly obvious to any cursory observer that something was amiss - especially when doctors with excellent feedback from patients during their GP years and excellent scores at the Applied Knowledge test started failing the CSA in droves. This became excruciatingly painful when they were later booted out of their training schemes, thousands of pounds out of pocket and jobless. The only common factor in all these cases were that these candidates were IMG's and predominantly male.
Background investigation and hear say point to the fact that the bar for CSA was raised again in 2010. The candidate now had to pass in all 13 stations which were marked by a single examiner with no videoing or appeals process. The stations were simulated surgeries with professional actors role playing patients.
From the comments on Pulse it is obvious that some of the actors are far from fair in divulging information to the doctor and some examiners may fail terribly under closer scrutiny.
But the key reason for this mass failure seems to stem from the fact that the Clinical Skills Assessment is anything but. It has been designed to enable only high end English communicators to pass the exam. And as such the trainers are woefully under equipped to help the failing trainee as this fact has probably not been divulged to them.
Recently the BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) has decided to take up the issue on behalf of all the suffering IMG's irrespective of ethnic origin. We wish them all success in their pursuit for justice.
Good to read : theriskyshift.com - Black and Minority Ethnic Doctors within the British National Health Service: What can History tell us?
Add on: It has just come to my notice that Pulse had apparently raised this issue here as early as in January 2011. And here we are one year later still reeling from its after effects.
Well done on shedding light on this smelly topic Jacqueline. There is nothing scandalous about this post at all. It is a truth that had to be told, and only the guilty will find this post scandalous, as they would like to keep things under wraps and things to chug along as usual.
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