ABSTRACT
The Royal Commission on Medical Education (1968) made quite detailed proposals for General Professional Training-a period of three years following the pre-registration year, during which doctors would gain experience in a variety of specialties, by means of sixmonth appointments. This would give an opportunity to sample different kinds of medical work and would, for most people, constitute a broad beginning to specialist training, either in hospital or general practice, by providing relevant experience. A number of general professional training packages were suggested, as examples which would be suitable for doctors with various career intentions. It was obviously meant that existing SHO and registrar posts would provide the material for this scheme; the idea of using these posts in a planned and systematic way, and linking them across specialty boundaries, was new.
