A Paradigm Shift: Quality Management and PMETB – The Approach of a School of Surgery

In 2003, UK legislation established a new regulatory body to develop a single, unifying framework for postgraduate medical and dental education and training: the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB). This new independent statutory organisation came into being on 30 September 2005 and set about a systematic examination of existing practice, as well as asking all 57 recognised specialties to submit formal curricula to them for approval. This review of practice translated into a policy document entitled Generic standards for training (April 2006), later updated in July 2008. In December 2008 the Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST) published a surgical version of this, the JCST Standards for Surgical Training.