Gastroenterology

The medical specialty of gastroenterology has been expanding rapidly from the early 1970s with the development of endoscopy. Training after MRCP or it's equivalent takes 5 years one of which may be pure research while the remaining four years are usually combined with general medicine. At least one year in a busier hospital with different constraints from those in teaching hospitals is expected and six months at least of specialised liver disease training is also required.

The trained gastroenterologist will be able to develop and run endoscopy services for diagnostic, therapeutic and screening endoscopy. All trained gastroenterologists will be competent at upper and lower GI endoscopy and some will have had additional training in hepato-biliary endoscopy. Most will be expected to participate in the acute medical receiving units of all cases including GI disease and to be expert in the management of the broad range of gastrointestinal disease either in out-patients or following admission. Consultation and communication skills are important in addition to organisational and managerial training.

The training curriculum and all training units and rotations in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are overseen by the Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC) answerable to the JRCPTB. This group embraces all the goals and targets set by the separate joint advisory group on gastrointestinal endoscopy (JAG) and both the Chairman and Secretary of the SAC sit on JAG. Representation on the SAC is nominated by the British Society of Gastroenterology, The Combined Royal Colleges of Physicians, The British Association for the Study of Liver diseases (BASL) and an observer from Ireland.

Knowledge Based Assessment

The KBA in Gastroenterology has been developed and produced by the Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK and the British Society of Gastroenterology and will be delivered for the first time in June 2008.  The KBA in Gastroenterology follows the MRCP(UK) format of two 3-hour papers each containing 100 best-of-five questions. The examination will be delivered at computer test centres throughout the UK and in four centres overseas (Cairo, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore).

A specialist KBA is now a compulsory component of assessment for CCT for all UK trainees whose specialist training began in or after August 2007. UK trainees who have completed MRCP(UK) would normally take the KBA in years 1-3 of higher specialist training (ST3-5), and must have made at least one attempt by the time of their penultimate year assessment. Other current trainees, for whom the KBA is not yet compulsory, are welcome to apply.

Overseas candidates are eligible to take the KBA in Gastroenterology if they have obtained the MRCP(UK).
The examination fee is £800 for candidates who sit the exam at a UK test centre and £1000 for candidates who sit at one of the four overseas centres.

For details on the content of the examination, please refer to the Gastroenterology curriculum.

For general information about KBAs and for the timetable of other specialties, go to:
http://www.jrcptb.org.uk/assessment/Pages/MRCP(UK)KnowledgeBasedAssessment.aspx

If you are interested in sitting the KBA in Gastroenterology in June or if you would like to be included on the mailing list for further updates about knowledge-based assessments, please send your e-mail address to:
kba.queries@mrcpuk.org

Due to regular revisions, arising from changes in the training environment and the requirements of the PMETB, the JRCPTB are currently running various curricula for trainees in each specialty.  All relevant curricula are listed at the bottom of this page under Documents.  Use the filter option on the right-hand side, together with the guidance notes below,  to help you select the correct document.  In summary:

• If you are a run-through (Specialty Registrar [StR]) trainee, you will follow the curricula tagged as ST3+

• If you are an ‘old style’ SpR, you are following the curricula tagged as SpR

• If you enrolled prior to 01/01/03, you will be following the original curricula which are no longer available for download, see note below

Competence Based Curricula and Assessment – StRs

The PMETB has received the assessment system (blueprint and RITA/ARCP grid) for Gastroenterology and this has been approved.  

The assessment blueprints show the possible methods that can be used to assess each of the competences in the curriculum. Trainees and trainers should refer to the blueprints for guidance on the appropriate assessment methods for each aspect of the curriculum, and so plan the training programme according to the criteria set by the RITA Decision Aid. It is not expected that all competences will be assessed by all methods, rather that there will be a sampling of competences within a variety of settings, both within formal and workplace-based assessment, from which overall competence acquisition has to be determined.

 Acute care common stem (Medicine) trainees will also follow the ACCS training manual.

Please note JAG approved DOPS forms can be downloaded by scrolling down to the Documents section of this page or by clicking here:

Competence Based Curricula – SpR (for trainees enrolling after 1 Jan 2003)

The JCHMT introduced revised curricula for all the medical specialties together with a generic curriculum that applied to all trainees back in 2003. These are competence-based and set out the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be acquired by trainees before they may be awarded a CCT.

Curricula (for trainees enrolling before 1 Jan 2003)