The National Health Service (Vocational Training for General Medical Practice) Regulations 1997

Certificate of equivalent experience

12.—(1) A person who does not claim to have acquired the prescribed experience, but who considers that the medical training and other experience which he has acquired is, or ought to be regarded as, equivalent to the prescribed experience may apply to the Joint Committee for a certificate of equivalent experience.

(2) The Joint Committee shall publish the criteria by which they will assess whether medical experience is equivalent to the prescribed experience.

(3) An application to the Joint Committee for a certificate of equivalent experience shall include particulars of the applicant’s medical experience, together with such evidence of that experience as the Committee may require.

(4) An applicant whose experience includes that referred to in regulation 6(3) shall, if the whole of that experience was undertaken after the day on which these Regulations come into force, produce to the Joint Committee the statement referred to in regulation 9(5)(a), or other evidence that he has passed summative assessment (but no other applicant for a certificate of equivalent experience may be required to undertake summative assessment).

(5) If the Joint Committee are satisfied that the applicant’s medical experience is equivalent to the prescribed experience and, in cases to which paragraph (4) applies, that he has passed summative assessment, they shall issue to him a certificate of equivalent experience.

(6) A certificate of equivalent experience shall show the qualifications by virtue of which the practitioner to whom it is issued is entitled to be registered under the Medical Act 1983, and where those qualifications were awarded.

(7) If the Joint Committee are satisfied that the medical experience in respect of which a certificate of equivalent experience is to be issued complies with all the requirements of the Medical Directive relating to specific training in general medical practice, they shall annotate the certificate to that effect.

(8) If the Joint Committee are not satisfied that the applicant’s medical experience is equivalent to the prescribed experience, they shall issue to him a statement setting out the reasons why they are not satisfied.

(9) A person who holds a certificate of equivalent experience shall be treated as having acquired the prescribed medical experience, but shall not be entitled to obtain a certificate of prescribed experience.