JRCPTB TRAINING FEES TO RISE

The Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians’ Training Board (JRCPTB) reluctantly announces an increase in trainee registration fees from £125 to £153 per year.    The bulk of this increase relates to an annual per capita fee for the use of the ePortfolio, which the provider, NHS Education Scotland, is unable to continue to provide free of charge to trainees.   The remainder of the increase, the first since 2007, reflects the impact of financial pressures on the training budget including an anticipated withdrawal of Department of Health support for the training responsibilities of the colleges.   This increase equates to £306 for CMT (formerly £250) and £765 (formerly £625) for specialist training for those who wish to pay in a single payment.   Staging the increase across the full training period of seven years, allied to collegiate membership, will help lessen the financial impact for trainees in any one year.

The new fees will come into force on 1st June 2010. 

The JRCPTB will be focussing its CMT and SACs’ work on those areas which critically affect the future careers of those in training in the medical specialties, specifically:

• The design, implementation, delivery and ongoing review of curricula for all medical specialties to the standards required by the GMC.

• Collaborating with postgraduate deaneries to provide external advice on the quality management of training, ensuring that curricula are being delivered effectively and problems are identified and resolved.

• Supporting individual trainees through providing expert advice and guidance and ensuring that CCTs and CESRs are awarded appropriately

• Developing and introducing more consistent support and guidance for all categories of trainees in academic medicine, from those in the formalised integrated academic pathways to those on OOPR.

• Providing expert input into future workforce planning, identifying trends, changes in service provision etc and identifying the consequences in respect of trainee numbers.