Next month the first cohort of doctors will take the knowledge and clinical tests for the new MRCGP (nMRCGP). For the first time in the UK, general practice has an agreed curriculum, a robust and standardised selection procedure, an integrated 3-year training scheme (rather than 1 year training and 2 years of hospital servitude), and a single method of assessment of competence. This is a considerable achievement, and should ensure that all doctors entering general practice have the basic knowledge, skills, and personal qualities needed to flourish as GPs. Selection for medical school and for foundation training is similarly becoming more objective and based on clearer and hopefully fairer criteria.
By coincidence next month is also the 15th anniversary of the death of David Widgery, a charismatic East London GP and nationally known writer and political activist. He entered medical school when selection depended as much on who you knew as …