The report, published in July, presents initial results from the GMC’s 2017 national training survey and shows that Bristol medical graduates do well in postgraduate specialty exams across all the medical royal colleges, having the fourth highest pass rate at 76.7% (after Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh).
They do particularly well in MRCGP exams, with a 95.1% pass rate (ranking 3rd after Oxford and Queen’s). These are the exams students must pass if they wish to practise as a general practitioner (GP).
There is also good news with regard to Bristol graduates choosing general practice as a career. Figures spanning from 2002 to 2016 show that although many junior doctors have not yet decided on their career pathway, of those that have, 47.1% of Bristol graduates were either in GP specialty training or on the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) register.
Dr Trevor Thompson, Reader in Healthcare Education and Head of Teaching at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, said:
“These figures show just how strongly Bristol medical graduates perform compared to peers across the country. It's exciting to see how many Bristol graduates are choosing careers in general practice. Our GP training is focused, supportive and rich in learning and experience. General practice itself is a great career with early responsibility, plenty of variety and intellectual and interpersonal challenge. I’d like to think, too, that Bristol graduates have been inspired by the over 600 GP teachers working on the undergraduate curriculum. GP recruitment is still a challenge but it looks like Bristol is ahead of the field”.