The Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK announces the launch of a new set of quality criteria for general internal medicine (GIM) and acute internal medicine (AIM) registrars, to be implemented from 1 August 2018.
These new criteria have been developed to support the experience of doctors, and designed to help address many of the difficulties faced by registrars in relation to three key areas:
- providing safe and effective care
- having a supportive working environment
- receiving a better educational experience.
They will also focus on vital areas such as consultant contact, clinical supervision, infrastructure to support patient flow, procedures training and protected learning time. There is an emphasis on enhancing support available both from close work colleagues, such as consultants and ward staff, and critically from the wider hospital environment.
Professor David Black, medical director of the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB), said:
We hope our new criteria, along with the other national initiatives being developed by some of our partners, will collectively result in increased engagement and improvement in the experience of general and acute internal medicine roles, which are essential to the immediate and longer-term provision of safe and effective patient care.
The JRCPTB will progress this initiative from 2018 onwards, on behalf of the Federation, in partnership with its major stakeholders in the postgraduate training system and wider NHS. It is envisaged that all organisations and individuals responsible for delivering UK postgraduate medical education and training will begin to implement these criteria from 1 August 2018 and the JRCPTB will monitor their adoption and success.
The quality criteria will also help to support the implementation of the new internal medicine curriculum from 2019.
The Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, based in the UK and with international reach, is a partnership between the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. Teams within the Federation deliver three key aspects of our service; CPD, Training (which the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) is responsible) and Examinations.