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Essential General Practice (EGP)

The RCGP’s new Essential General Practice Updates initiative is designed to provide for  GPs a structured learning activity that will enable them to assimilate and apply new and changing knowledge, relevant to their clinical practice, as part of their CPD.  Following a comprehensive information search a Professional Development Board expert panel  identifies the key changes and new developments in core clinical evidence and organisational areas which every general practitioner should  know about.  This synthesis of key evidence is incorporated into a range of e-learning tools, written material from the College and other publications, all of which will be focused on supporting GPs and their teams to provide the best possible care to patients.

The EGP Updates  will be a key element of the RCGP’s provision of Continuing Professional Development to support revalidation.

EGP Update Programme

EGP Updates focus on new and changing information that relates to key clinical areas of national significance where there is consensus about best clinical practice (e.g. newly published NICE/SIGN guidelines that are central to GP everyday practice; newly published Gold Standards; new relevant legislation). Two EGP Updates will be produced per year, following the two pilots in 2008. They will be available and accessible to all GPs whether RCGP members or not, based in the UK or overseas, across any setting, at all stages of their career, whatever their employment type or status.   EGP Updates will be provided as part of the RCGP membership package. It is anticipated that non-members will pay for the programmes after the pilot phase.

The purpose of the EGP Update programme

•   To enable GPs to be aware of, and learn about, relevant new and changing information (e.g.  important newly published best practice, national guidance or research, consensus views of key relevance to GPs) and to encourage effective application of that knowledge to enhance their patients’ experience.

•  To enable GPs to meet learning needs in relation to new and changing knowledge and information relevant to general practice.

•  To encourage practising GPs to apply the content of EGP Update  in order to enhance their skills and improve quality of care in the  services they provide.

•  To be a key element of a GP’s annual CPD folder that can be self-accredited or accredited by peer review within the terms and conditions of the managed RCGP CPD scheme.

•  To contribute, in due course, as part of the managed CPD scheme, to the provision of evidence of a GP’s learning for inclusion in their personal portfolio for recertification purposes.

Pilot of the EGP Update Programme

The first EGP Update programme was launched as pilot online in May 2008 and is now available at  http://www.rcgp.org.uk/practising_as_a_gp/distance_learning/egp_update.aspx

It contains a selection of  20 peer referenced key knowledge items, both clinical and organisational, identified from a wide range of trusted sources, and selected as being an essential new development over the previous 12  months that all GPs should know about.  Each topic is scenario-based and has a self assessment element. Links to additional in-depth background information are embedded in each topic.

The second EGP Update launched in October 2008 consists of 7 major items and 20 briefings highlighting new and changing information that had been prioritised from a search span January - July 2008 inclusive.   All items are relevant to GP practice and are designed for a GP to be able to use them to run an in-practice educational workshop as well as for personal use. To find out more please follow this link: http://www.rcgp.org.uk/practising_as_a_gp/distance_learning/egp2_update.aspx

Pilot of the EGP Knowledge Challenge

A separate ‘Knowledge Challenge’ self assessment, that will test knowledge of the whole Update, will be circulated about three months after each Update as an option for GPs participating in the EGP Update programme. 

The first Knowledge Challenge was released in September 2008 and is now available at  http://integra.rcgp.org.uk/eassessment/ .  It contains 50 multi choice questions based on the content and reference material of the first EGP Update.  If you score 70% or more you will be able to print out a certificate to add to your appraisal folder.