Modernising Medical Careers

Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) is a programme for postgraduate medical training introduced in the United Kingdom in 2005. The programme replaced the traditional grades of medical career before the level of Consultant. The different stages of the programme contribute towards a "Certificate of Completion of Training" (CCT). It has been dogged by criticism within and outside the medical profession, and an independent review of MMC led by Professor Sir John Tooke criticised many aspects of it.

MMC refers to both the programme itself, and also to the temporary organization, formed in 2003, responsible for its nationwide implementation.

From 2005, new medical graduates embarked on a two-year Foundation Programme in place of the former one-year Pre-registration house officer (PRHO) term and the first year of the former Senior house officer (SHO) term, with the older titles nominally replaced by "Foundation House Officer 1" or F1 and "Foundation House Officer 2" or F2. In keeping with the previous system, new graduates are only provisionally registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) during the first year, with full registration taking place following successful completion of the first year of postgraduate training. At this point doctors move straight into the F2 year in most, but not all, foundation schools, without having to apply again. Under the previous system, doctors applied for SHO jobs within six to eight months of beginning work as a PRHO.

The Foundation Programme consists of two years training split into rotations of three or four months in different specialties. The programme features continuing assessments, and the introduction of a national curriculum intended to nationalise and standardise medical training. As part of this junior doctors are required to maintain a "learning portfolio". Despite these notional benefits, 69% of doctors surveyed felt F2 was not an improvement on the first-year SHO experience it replaced, with experiences of the programme "very variable".

The next stage of training is the Specialty Registrar (StR). This is a unification of the previous training grades of SHO (except for year 1) and the old SpR grade. The duration of StR training varies by specialty, but as with the Foundation years, all programmes have a standardised curriculum and assessment model that is approved by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board. In 2007 appointments were made centrally, but following the disastrous outcomes of that system, whereby some 14,000 junior doctors were left without jobs, many specialties have appointed registrars locally since 2008.

...
Wikipedia