24 January 2003
The Department of Health and the medical Royal Colleges signed a memorandum of understanding that aims to streamline the number of college visits to assess the quality of hospitals' training, and to shorten the time taken for a doctor to become a consultant.
Trust managers have long complained about the multitude of external inspections. The department has tried to reduce the number of management and clinical governance audits by getting bodies such as the Audit Commission and the Commission for Health Improvement to work together and by proposing the new umbrella watchdog, the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection.
However, the deal with the Royal Colleges is the first attempt to curtail the source of what many trusts view as their biggest inspection headache.
The department and colleges will also explore ways of shaving a year off doctors' specialist training. Health Secretary Alan Milburn said this should help achieve the government's target of 15,000 more consultants and GPs by 2008.
Junior doctors currently spend five years in the pre-consultant grade but this could now be shortened to four. It is thought that attention will focus initially on hard-pressed specialities such as orthopaedics.
However, the British Medical Association said it would support shorter training if the current levels and depth of medical education could be maintained.
The department and colleges also intend to speed up the consultant appointment process.
PFjan2003
