Approval of sub-specialties

Under the Medical Act, the GMC has powers to recognise new sub-specialties or decommission those no longer required.

Important guidance (pdf) covers the recognition and decommission of new sub-specialty curricula and assessment systems and training programmes. These are sub-specialties of main specialties. The latter lead to the award of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT).

To set this in context, a doctor can have sub-specialty training indicated against his/her name in the Specialist Register along with the main CCT specialty if he/she satisfies the GMC that he/she has satisfactorily completed sub-specialty training approved by the GMC (or by its predecessor body, PMETB). A number of sub-specialties continue to be recognised by the GMC following their approval by PMETB and PMETB's predecessor, the Specialist Training Authority. View the list of approved specialty and sub-specialty curricula that lead to the award of a CCT.

If, however, the need for recognition of a new sub-specialty arises, or a sub-specialty currently recognised by the GMC is no longer required, the relevant medical Royal College or Faculty can apply to the GMC to either add or decommission a sub-specialty and so add to or remove from the recognised list. The guidance specifies the process steps which must be taken before recognition or decommission can be approved.