ABSTRACT
It is now widely accepted that our system of training hospital doctors should be scrapped and that we should start from scratch. Unlike the situation that obtains with the training of general practitioners, there is no statutory vocational training for hospital doctors. The pattern of funding of hospital training has developed in a piecemeal fashion rather than as a result of systematic planning. There is division of financial responsibilities for medical education: undergraduate training is funded by the universities and postgraduate training by the National Health Service (NHS). To consultants, the purpose of training is to develop individual and collective abilities to satisfy current and future manpower needs of the NHS. At present, the NHS has set up the regional postgraduate system and has set out its desirable functions. The regional postgraduate system should be consolidated and organized into autonomous institutions along the lines of universities and other institutions of higher learning.
