AMACDT advocacy for GP trainees after exam disruption
Following an extraordinary meeting of the board, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has announced it will immediately refund and fully support all candidates who were due to sit Fellowship exams that had to be cancelled on Friday and Saturday. The AMA has written to the RACGP requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the steps the College is taking to resolve registrar and supervisor concerns and ensure certainty can be provided to registrars as they again prepare for their exam.
The AMA commends the quick action taken by RACGP to act swiftly to help those affected by the cancellation in what is a very distressing time for all concerned, particularly for registrars who have dedicated so much time to preparing for this exam and now face the daunting prospect of having to re-sit the exam. The disruption has also impacted medical supervisors and their practices that support registrars.
Based on the AMA Supporting assessment in vocational training - 2019 position statement, the measures we will be discussing with RACGP to have in place to support registrars include:
- Full refund of examination fees (including no cost for the rescheduled exam)
- Exams to be rescheduled in a timely manner post adequate fail-safe testing and investigating alternative forms of assessment if the exams are unable to proceed
- Waiving of the rescheduled examination attempt (i.e. the attempt not counting towards the total number of attempts)
- Transparent and robust contingency planning for any future virtual/electronic exams
- Clear and timely communication with trainees with focused support to prioritise trainee wellbeing with provisions for mental health support
- Provisions for additional training time & examination leave for any Registrar whose progress towards RACGP Fellowship has been significantly impacted by the exam failure
- An independent, transparent, and robust forensic investigation process with direct RACGP GP in Training Faculty, GPRA and AMACDT input into the terms of reference of the review and for it to be delivered to all involved in a timely manner
We will be posting regular updates on our AMACDT Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/amacdt/
Read our media release here
Also read our Position Statement Supporting assessment in vocational training – 2019
