A Guide to Postgraduate Specialty Training in the UK (the “Gold Guide”) sets out the arrangements for the introduction of competence based specialty training in the UK . It primarily deals with operational issues to help support the transition from specialist training which has been in place since 1996 to specialty training.

All doctors recruited into the new General Medical Council (GMC) approved specialty and general practice training programmes will be known as Specialty Registrars (StRs).  Specialist Registrars (SpRs), Specialist Trainees in Public Health Medicine (SpTs) and General Practice Registrars (GPRs) appointed before August 2007 will retain these titles unless they switch to the new specialty curricula.

This Guide to Postgraduate Specialty Training builds upon (but replaces) the Guide to Specialist Registrar Training (the “Orange Book”) and The GP Registrar Scheme Vocational Training for General Medical Practice UK Guide (the “Green Book”) for doctors entering the new specialty training programmes in August 2007. Throughout this document reference to specialty training includes general practice.  Where arrangements differ between specialty training and general practice these differences are noted in the Guide.

The development of this Guide has been through an iterative process of reflection and discussion. Using the good practice which Postgraduate Deans, Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties, professional associations and the four health departments have developed, it is eclectic and has been refined from documents and sources which have already established practice in a number of areas.  It has also retained important and relevant aspects of the Orange and Green Books where it has been appropriate to do so. These remain applicable to SpRs/SpTs/GPRs appointed prior to January 2007 except where legislative changes require adaptation to GMC standards. The standards and requirements set by GMC are extensively quoted to ensure that the Guide is underpinned by them and by the GMC's Good Medical Practice.  The contribution of colleagues in all of these organisations is gratefully acknowledged as are the excellent and relevant observations from the Reference Group, which supported the drafting of this Guide.

The Guide is being published in electronic format and will be available on the four UK MMC websites.  This will enable electronic links and searches (using the “find” facility) within the Guide to be timely and accessible, as well as facilitating regular up-dating of the Guide to ensure that it reflects the rapid developments in postgraduate specialty training. Arrangements for updating it will be developed by the UK MMC Policy Group.   National and devolved nation supplements will be issued to clarify recruitment and selection procedures in due course.  This Guide is scheduled to be formally reviewed by August 2009.

Download The Gold Guide on the MMC website.