ABSTRACT
My daughter is about to qualify as a doctor. My fatherly pride is enhanced by the knowledge that after six years (she took an intercalated BSc) she might at last pay her own mobile phone bill. She doesn't yet know which area of medicine she is going to concentrate on, but she seems 'medically' inclined; though she quite liked psychiatry, and does not rule out general practice, perhaps only to keep her dad happy. She will be the last of the old guard, the pre-PMETB generation, an unmodernised medical career so no new curriculum for her; well, maybe. Now, if she delayed qualification for a year by failing finals say (perish the thought), she would enter the brave new world of restructured training, continuous formative assessments, workplace-based assessments and as yet undefined summative assess ments. Her pre-registration year will metamorphose into two foundation years, though as I write this there is no agreed structure, particularly to the second of these years, it just seems like a good idea. Whose?
