Why a unified route to Fellowship?
The unified route to Fellowship has been introduced in
order to:
- Bring Fellowship within the reach of more
members
Compared with other medical Royal Colleges, the RCGP has relatively
few Fellows (11% as opposed to 20% for most other Colleges). While
the College is keen to retain the current value placed on
Fellowship, it is hoped that members will increasingly see
attaining FRCGP as an integral part of their personal and career
development, and that more members will be encouraged to
apply.
- Broaden our diversity
FBN and FBA have
perhaps disadvantaged certain groups of members, such as portfolio,
sessional, part-time or peripatetic GPs or those taking extended
career breaks or working in the Armed Services. The unified route
with its six achievement categories provides more equitable
opportunities for these groups to attain Fellowship. The only firm
requirement is that anyone working in active clinical practice must
submit evidence in the Clinical Practice category.
- Value and recognise our members
The ethos
of the new Fellowship route is to be supportive and encouraging of
members in their varied individual circumstances, rather than being
too prescriptive. The achievement criteria are deliberately based
on examples of the sorts of things the Fellowship Committee would
consider appropriate for Fellowship, rather than a specific list of
requirements.