Discrimination-related issues during GP exam

A new study by The University of Manchester was published on bmj.com and brings concern about discrimination-related issues during GP exam in the UK. The study talks about ethic minority doctors who don`t have as many benefits as white doctors do. In order to become a doctor in the UK, every physician needs to pass the MRCGP (membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners) exam.

 The rate of high failures of ethnic minority candidates brought concern and it is questioned if this phenomenon could be associated with discrimination. “With continuing dependence on international medical graduates in meeting the workforce needs of many developed countries, including the UK, understanding the barriers that these doctors face in entering and competing specialist medical training is important”, said Professor Esmail, professor of General Practice at The University of Manchester. Professor of Biostatics, Chris Roberts also participated in this study. The team of researchers together discovered that there were significant differences of the exam`s results between different ethnic graduates. Minority ethnic graduates, British black and other black ethnic candidates were more likely to fail the exams.

 The researchers said that they “cannot explain differences between white candidates and black and minority ethnic candidates who have trained in the UK, and who would have had similar training experiences and language proficiency”. Professor Esmail added: “We believe that changes to the clinical skills assessment could improve the perception of the examination as being biased against black and minority ethnic candidates. (…) Our report also recommends additional training for international medical graduates to better enable their adaption to the UK health care system”.