Reports and action plans
Visit Reports
Visit reports can be used to get information about how medical education and training provided by a medical school or deanery was meeting our standards at the time of the visit.
Visit reports for medical schools are written against our standards for undergraduate education. Visit reports for deaneries are written against our standards for postgraduate education and training.
If a medical school or deanery is not meeting a standard the report will set a requirement for them to take action so that they will meet the standard. If a medical school or deanery is meeting a standard but could improve the report will set a recommendation for improvement.
Visit reports also include good practice which is reported where a medical school or deanery is doing something very well, which may be innovative.
Annual Reports
Medical Schools
The GMC's Quality Improvement Framework (QIF) requires that all medical schools provide an annual report. Medical schools are asked to self-assess against the standards set out in Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009). Medical school annual reports for all 31 schools have been published.
Deaneries
All deaneries are required to provide a deanery report (DR) within a specific timeframe and structure. To provide the information for the DR, deaneries are asked to self-assess and report any exceptions against the GMC's standards for postgraduate training.
As part of the DR deaneries are required to submit an action plan. The deanery's action plan is the key, forward-looking part of the DR. It identifies actions to be taken to resolve areas of concern with levels of response during the following year; using, for example, a traffic lights system.
Publicly sharing the information held in action plans is an important part of informing patients, the public and trainees amongst other key stakeholders, about both the outcomes of quality assurance and the deanery/LEPs commitments to action. To this end, deanery action plans for each of the UK's 21 postgraduate deaneries have been published.
Medical colleges/ faculties
On an annual basis medical colleges/ faculties submit a specialty specific report. It will be important for the GMC to receive information from colleges/ faculties. Such information would provide an essential specialty perspective, a national overview by specialty and sub-specialty, and would be particularly useful for small specialties. The analysis of such data by the colleges and faculties will ensure that specialty-specific issues and context are fully taken on board by the GMC.