Læknablaðið - 01.06.1972, Blaðsíða 63

LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
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in clinical practice is only devoting say 40 hours to actual work
with patients, the number of additional hours he must constantly
spend to keep him fit for his clinical work is very substantial and
will continue to increase.
The Royal Commission on Medical Education in Britain which
reported in 1967 stressed the importance of maintaining and extend-
ing the provision for postgraduate education in all fields of medicine,
both vocational and specialty trainings and continuing education. It
recommended the establishment of a central body to have oversight
of this work and at the end of last year a Council for Postgraduate
Medical Education was appointed, consisting almost entirely of
nominees of various professional and educational bodies and with
the Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University — himself a distinguished
physician — as its chairman. That Council had been preceded by
a voluntary committee which had laid the foundations for its work
in advance of the general agreement within the profession for a
Central Council financed from government funds. The Council with
a small staff hopes to guide the Regional Committees which will be
the advisers of universities and Regional Hospital Boards in every
region. They will promote a programme of vocational and advanced
specialty training, provide career guidance for young doctors and
develop the continuing educational programmes in every district. I
have described to you how much has been done by voluntary effort
already, but we must now go beyond this to the organised national,
regional and local programme supported by the health authorities.
I can only give you this general outline now, but I would emphasise
one point about the development. It must be a co-operative exercise
between the profession and the Health Department and the fact that
it is mainly financed from government funds must not become the
pretext for detailed interference in professional training patterns. It
is true that they depend very much upon the use of suitable training
posts within the Health Service, but that should be a matter for
discussion and agreement and not for dictation from either side.
I cannot tell you yet that all is well with British postgraduate
education. We started late with the comprehensive scheme, but we
have been able to build upon much that has been developed volun-
tarily and it is better that this should be so since it emphasises the
responsibility of the profession for its own standards in its work and
its training, both initial and ongoing. For myself I believe that the
pattern which is now emerging will be able to meet the most exacting
requirements of the future.