News & Views

This week, the GMC has published the latest data on the progression of doctors in postgraduate medical education across the UK. You can access the data via the reporting tool. The GMC has also produced a summary report. Tackling barriers that exist in medical education must remain an urgent priority for organisations across the UK’s health services, including all of us with responsibilities for postgraduate training. Fair and supportive training is not only key to the quality of medical education and practice, it’s also vital to help retain healthcare professionals in the UK.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists is pleased to announce that their prestigious Part 2 FRCOphth Oral examination will be held in Athens, Greece for the first time in October 2023. This marks the first time that the Part 2 FRCOphth Oral exam will be available to sit on the European mainland, enabling candidates in European and neighbouring countries to sit the exam closer to home.

This new scheme offers junior ophthalmology doctors from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds the opportunity to effect positive change by being a mentor.

In this episode, we speak with Mr Soupramanien Sandramouli, a consultant ophthalmologist in Wolverhampton and the previous CESR lead for the RCOphth. Mr Sandramouli shares his experiences and advice on how to succeed when preparing a CESR application and the common mistakes to be avoided.

In this episode, we speak with Andrew Blaikie about his journey into international Ophthalmology and humanitarian work, including the development of Arclight, a low-cost direct ophthalmoscope used all over the world.

In this episode, we speak with Sarah Maling, the lead for specialty recruitment. She provides an overview of what has changed for recruitment this year due to the pandemic and also answers questions that were submitted in advance of this podcast episode.

In this episode we speak with Andy Pyott, a Consultant Ophthalmologist from Inverness. He shared with us his experience of becoming involved with international Ophthalmology and summarised his achievements in Indonesia where he has focussed most of his efforts. He also shared a collection of pearls for Ophthalmologists who want to be involved with Ophthalmology overseas.

The NHSE/I and the Academy recognise the opportunity for doctors who have joined the GMC emergency registration (having recently relinquished registration) to provide further support to the health service.

The RCOphth has launched a new special episode of its Eye to Eye podcast ahead of the upcoming 2020 intake National Recruitment interviews in Bristol. This special episode features an interview with RCOphth National Recruitment Sub-committee Chair, Sarah Maling, who shares some top tips for those preparing for their interviews.

In this special episode we hear with Sarah Maling, RCOphth National Recruitment Sub-Committee Chair, on the set-up for national recruitment into ophthalmic specialist training and some top tips for candidates preparing for their interviews in February.