Student registration with GMC: a cautious vote of confidence

Editor - Leung presents the case for student registration with the GMC convincingly¹ and rightly points out the problems with the recommendations on student health and conduct. However, while the concept of registration at first glance seems very appealing, there are several issues that must be resolved. Leung highlights the difficulties of universities acting as moral guardians and policing entry to the medical profession. It is unclear how maintenance of a student register would be administered at a local level. If not the universities', then whose responsibility would this be? Students develop relationships with members of faculty staff who understand their personal circumstances, and the value of these should not be dwarfed by a centralised system of control. As students we are in a formative period of training. Errors of judgment made during a training period should not necessarily prohibit a career within the profession. As undergraduates we are expected to make, and learn from, mistakes. Criteria for exclusion from and, by implication, inclusion on the register will need to be clearly defined and agreed. The implications-financial, academic, and personal-of exclusion or suspension must be acknowledged. Graduation in medicine should ideally remain independent of registration status. The degree of MBBS should be seen for what it is: an academic qualification and not an automatic licence to practice.

I agree wholeheartedly with Leung's sentiments. The concept of student GMC registration represents an unprecedented opportunity to afford our patients greater protection and make explicit the relationships between student, university, GMC, degree, and licence to practice. However, we must proceed with caution. By failing to consider the potential pitfalls and ramifications adequately, we serve only to store up problems for ourselves and our successors.

Kate Duffield, third year medical student, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Email: keduffield@hotmail.com


studentBMJ 2000;08:303-346 September ISSN 0966-6494

1. Leung W-C. The case for student GMC registration. studentBMJ 2000;8:289. (August.)