The New Doctor

The GMC is responsible for doctors in the first year of the Foundation Programme, who have provisional registration.

The GMC is responsible for doctors in the first year of the Foundation Programme, who have provisional registration with a licence to practise.

Our guidance for this period is called The New Doctor (pdf). It comprises three sections:

• the Outcomes for the first year that doctors must demonstrate before they are eligible to apply for full registration.
• the Standards for Training for the Foundation Programme that those responsible for providing Foundation Programme training must meet; and
• the legal framework for programmes for provisionally registered doctors.

Outcomes for the first year of the Foundation Programme

Provisionally registered doctors with a licence to practise must demonstrate that they meet the outcomes set by the GMC and have completed a programme of 12 months before being eligible to apply for full registration.

What if I entered the Foundation Programme before August 2007?

Prior to August 2007, provisionally registered doctors were required to work for 12 months in an approved post, with three months in medicine, and three months in surgery before they were awarded full registration.

Doctors entering training between 1 August 2005 and August 2007 were advised to be aware that the deanery may also require them to meet the outcomes set out in the transitional edition of The New Doctor.

From August 2007 there is no longer a legal requirement to undertake experience in surgery and medicine.

Standards for Training for the Foundation Programme

The GMC and PMETB have separate but complementary responsibilities for the Foundation Programme.

We have jointly agreed the Standards for Training for the Foundation Programme.

We have adopted the PMETB Generic Standards for Training, with additional specific standards and guidance for the Foundation Programme to reflect the requirements for this period of training.

Much of the detail from the transitional edition The New Doctor (2005) has been incorporated into the Foundation Programme Curriculum, which has been approved by the GMC as meeting its standards for training for the first year of the Foundation Programme.

Foundation Programme Curriculum

The GMC has approved the Foundation Programme curriculum..

View the curriculum (Foundation Programme Office website) (opens in new window).

Foundation year one doctors who successfully complete a programme for provisionally registered doctors that follows the curriculum and meet the outcomes will be eligible to apply for full registration.

Legal framework

The publication of The New Doctor in 2007 marked the end of a two year transitional period in which we have revised the legal requirements for provisionally registered doctors.

The GMC has issued guidance on the amount of sick leave a provisionally registered doctor can take during the 12 months training required prior to full registration.

Read Guidance on sick leave for provisionally registered doctors (23kb, pdf).