The RCGP has changed its exam regulations in light of a High Court ruling last year which found its ‘attempts’ policy to be ‘unlawful’.
Last month, the college said it has ‘formulated a new policy on examination attempts’ which now means it can ‘void’ previous attempts for candidates who receive a ‘late disability diagnosis’.
The High Court ruling last year dealt with the case of GP registrar Dr Marwa Karmakar, who brought legal action against the RCGP’s policy to disallow re-sits for those who received a late diagnosis of disability and failed previous exam attempts without reasonable adjustments.
Dr Karmakar, who was supported in her legal case by the BMA, had failed five attempts at the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT), two of which were after her diagnosis for neurodiversity and were scored notably higher than the first three.
The High Court judge ruled that this ‘attempts policy’ for the AKT was ‘irrational’ and should be ‘quashed’.
At the time, the RCGP said it would consider the details of the judgement before taking any action.
Now, the college has confirmed: ‘Following the Judicial Review by Mr Justice Garnham on 26 August 2024, the RCGP has formulated a new policy on examination attempts for candidates who receive a late disability diagnosis.
‘This process has been lengthy and has involved consultation with key stakeholders. We appreciate all other stakeholders’ patience during this time.’
The MRCGP regulations on eligibility have now been ‘updated to reflect the changes’, with a new clause added which covers late disability diagnoses.
It says: ‘Where after an unsuccessful attempt a candidate receives a diagnosis of a disability of which they were previously unaware, the RCGP may void any previous attempts which they took while having that disability without the appropriate reasonable adjustments.
‘The candidate would still have the same upper limit of maximum attempts as they were entitled to when they entered training for the first time.
‘Applications for previous attempts to be voided are subject to all other applicable MRCGP Regulations and Policies, including rules on eligibility and timeframes.’
Responding to the changes on Friday, the BMA lauded this as ‘another win for GP registrars from the BMA’.
GP registrars committee co-chair Dr Victoria McKay said she was ‘delighted’ to share the news that the RCGP ‘has finally updated its unfair examination policy’.
She continued: ‘This comes after the BMA won a landmark legal judgement supporting a GP registrar who was unfairly treated by the college’s unlawful exam attempts policy.’
is this the same for mrcp and frcp and other postgraduate exams? ie does the new ruling apply to these other exams ? also does it apply to any other nonmedical exams post graduate or otherwise?
Don’t know, MC, but there isn’t an exam for FRCP. I gave up my FRCGP because they persistently were muddling up me with another Fellow, and I thought that I didn’t want to be a Fellow of a College that was clearly so incompetent. (I think it was about the same time that some morons decided on a public campaign to say how wonderful it was to be a GP as you could sign people’s sky diving forms.) I still have my FRCP though. The Physicians are better organised, having been around for over 500 years now!
The BMA is the only organisation that supports doctors. However a lot of people are milking the system for diagnoses for various reasons and gaining an advantage over others. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65534449.
This is clearly great news.
I’m sure the GMC, being famously laissez-faire, will now take a similarly accommodating approach if lack of reasonable adjustments for neurodiversity while practising in the real world lead to 5 failures to complete a task necessary for patient management to the same basic standard expected of all practicing GPs.