Race and deprivation set back medical trainees, GMC analysis finds

New research shared with HSJ  has ‘laid bare’ the inequalities experienced by medical trainees, with black doctors more likely to perform worse in exams than any other ethnic group.

The report published by the General Medical Council (GMC) highlights that UK medical graduates of black or black British heritage have the lowest specialty exam pass rate of all ethnic groups at 62%, which is almost 20 percentage points lower than that of white doctors (79%). It is the first time the medical regulator has split this data by ethnicity, it said. 

The GMC has pledged to “eliminate discrimination, disadvantage and unfairness” in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education by 2031 and the disproportionate number of fitness to practise complaints received about ethnic minority doctors and doctors who gained their medical qualification outside of the UK by 2026.

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Source: HSJ, 2 March 2023