The Royal Medical Colleges

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The chief role of the Royal Medical Colleges is to set educational,
professional and clinical standards for their
specialty. Trainees in a given specialty must now generally
pass a membership examination from the relevant
college before obtaining a certificate of completion of
specialist training. Some newer specialties have their
standards set by a faculty of a Royal Medical College.
For example, forensic medical examiners have their
standards set by the Faculty of Forensic Medical Examiners
at the Royal College of Physicians. Now that doctors
will have to supply evidence of fitness to practise
after specialization (a process called revalidation), the
Royal Colleges will set specialty-specific standards on
behalf of the GMC. The colleges also pass comment
on issues relating to their specialty and the health service.
The colleges support research (e.g. with financial
grants and opportunities to showcase research at conferences
and in college journals) and will have a committee
which produces specialty-specific ethical guidance.
For example, the Royal college of General Practitioners
has an ethics committee, which produces educational
material on ethics for GPs and reports to the RCGP
council.

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