BME doctors less likely to be offered postgraduate training posts than white doctors, says GMC

Abstract

Black and minority ethnic (BME) doctors are less likely to be offered a place on a specialty training programme than white applicants, research carried out by the General Medical Council has found. The GMC has published a report on its investigation into how doctors progress through training.1 As part of the investigation the GMC studied recruitment data concerning doctors who applied for specialty and general practice training programmes after completing the second year of foundation training (F2). It also looked at data on examination pass rates for doctors in specialty and GP training. The GMC found that BME doctors were less likely than white applicants to be offered a place on a training programme. “Of F2 doctors with a UK primary medical qualification, 72% of BME applicants received an offer compared with 81% of white applicants,” the report said. The GMC also found that BME doctors from UK medical schools were less likely to pass their postgraduate exams than white doctors from UK medical schools. “Pass rates were 63.5% and 76% respectively,” the …