Tomorrow's Doctors: Appendix 2 – What the law says about undergraduate education

UK law

1. 1. The powers and duties of the GMC in regulating medical education are set out in the Medical Act 1983.
2. 2. From the introduction of the licence to practise, graduates who hold a UK primary medical qualification (PMQ) are entitled to provisional registration with a licence to practise, subject to demonstrating to the GMC that their fitness to practise is not impaired.
3. 3. Standards for the delivery of the Foundation Programme, and outcomes for the training of provisionally registered doctors seeking full registration, are published under the title The Trainee Doctor.
4. 4. UK PMQs include degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery awarded by bodies or combinations of bodies recognised by the GMC. These are the organisations or combinations that may hold qualifying examinations. (Also, valid UK PMQs may be held by individuals who were awarded
   these qualifications by bodies that were at the time, but are no longer, empowered to award PMQs.)

European Union law

1. 5. European Directive 2005/36/EC allows European Union (EU) nationals who hold an EU PMQ or specialist qualification to practise as doctors anywhere in the EU.
2. 6. Article 24 of the Directive says the period of basic medical training must be at least six years of study or 5,500 hours of theoretical and practical training provided by, or under the supervision of, a university. From the introduction of the licence to practise, 'basic medical training' is the period leading up to full registration with a licence to practise.
3. 7. The EU Directive says basic medical training must provide assurance that individuals acquire the following knowledge and skills:
4. ‘Adequate knowledge of the sciences on which medicine is based and a good understanding of the scientific methods including the principles of measuring biological functions, the evaluation of scientifically established facts and the analysis of data.’
5. ‘Sufficient understanding of the structure, functions and behaviour of healthy and sick persons, as well as relations between the state of health and physical and social surroundings of the human being.’
   
   ‘Adequate knowledge of clinical disciplines and practices, providing him with a coherent picture of mental and physical diseases, of medicine from the points of view of prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy and of human reproduction.’
6. ‘Suitable clinical experience in hospitals under appropriate supervision.’

These quotes have been taken from EU Directive 2005/36, Article 24.