It is definitely good to be back in KL,albeit for a very short visit.

For friends who were interested in doing the MRCGP as an alternative to the Fellowship exams;please take note.

For the MRCGP Int, i was just informed last week that the RACGP Assessment Unit in Melbourne have no idea how to "assess" it. Apparently between June 23rd (when i sat for my AKT exam of the FRACGP as part of the specialist pathway) and now, they have changed theri minds yet again and do not think it is "equivalent"

I wrote to the RCGP UK and UK PMETB and apparently with the MRCGP Int you can actually apply under the CESR pathway to obtain a certificate equal to the CCT. Please see the quote below regarding the process you need to go through:

In the first instance, you will need to pass the General Medical Council’s PLAB test before you can apply for a license to practice in the UK. In order to practice in the UK as a substantive Consultant, you must also be registered on the GMC’s Specialist register.



Please see link below for more information regarding the PLAB test:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/plab.asp



Furthermore, in order to be registered on the GMC’s specialist register you will need to get the Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) award from PMETB.

This will ascertain whether your training abroad matches the UK standard. After being awarded a CESR, you will be eligible for specialist registration.



Below is a link with more information and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the equivalence routes to the specialist register and GP registers.



http://www.pmetb.org.uk/index.php?id=961


It is a bit fairer as the pathwya is clear and they do not change it every minute like the RACGP in Australia.


For instance take a look at this letter they sent in March 2009:

Further to our correspondence, we acknowledge your desire to undertake the RACGP assessment in March 2009. As you are aware, in July 2008 the RACGP Specialist Pathway (SP) was introduced as a tailored program for international medical graduates (IMGs) wanting to work in Australian general practice. This pathway is intended for IMGs who do not have Australian medical registration.

According to your application, you have already been granted medical registration in Australia, hence you were notified that enrolment in the RACGP assessment could not take place unless you met the enrolment eligibility criteria for the practice eligible route. We identified that this may have created an obstacle with the medical board, as your registration was conditional pending the undertaking of the RACGP Applied Knowledge test (AKT). Hence we offered you the opportunity to enter into the Specialist Pathway which will enable you to sit the AKT without meeting your GP experience time requirements. Please see 'The Assessment Handbook for Candidates- eligibility for Assessment' http://www.racgp.org.au/assessmenthandbook.

The policy still remains the same; that you either continue down the practice eligible route and fulfil the GP experience time requirements or enter into the SP. Due to the difficulty this presents to you, the RACGP are reconsidering this policy and a review is underway. As you can appreciate, this review may take some months before an outcome is published. We are aware of the time constraints you are under hence we propose a short term solution to your current situation.

We have made arrangements for a special sitting of the AKT on 23 June 09 in Sydney. We anticipate that by the time your results are released, we will be better positioned to advise you of what is required to proceed with the final exam segments and eventually achieving the Fellowship of the RACGP.


However this has changed AGAIN and now they switched me to a Practice Based Assessment!.