Annex A > Chapter 4 - National Accountabilities and Roles > Continuing professional development (CPD)
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Continuing professional development (CPD)
305 `CPD' is an equivalent term to `CME', used in various professions and replacing CME as the predominant term used.
306 The development and acceptance of `CPD' was stimulated by problems in the introduction of minimal access (or `keyhole') surgery. As Sir Barry Jackson said:
`... discussions and debate had been taking place about these general issues relating to audit, to CME, in the 1980s, but were stimulated and perhaps minds focused quite sharply by the introduction of minimal access surgery in the 1990s in this country, 1991, I think. [367]
`... the introduction of minimal access surgery played a part in focusing the mind quite acutely. This was "keyhole surgery" by want of another name, because as is well known, when keyhole surgery in the field of gallbladder surgery was introduced in this country in the early 1990s, there was unfortunately a spate of complications resulting from the introduction of that particular technique which focused the mind very acutely.' [368]
`There was a recognition, and there had been over some years before, that these matters of audit, continuing medical education, ensuring that individual practitioners participated, was an area that needed more formal adoption than had previously been the case.' [369]
307 CPD includes training for new techniques such as minimal access surgery, but is broader. It includes keeping up to date with improvements to existing techniques, [370] and requires post-qualification training. [371]
308 In addition to what was described to the Inquiry as the `furore' [372] over minimal access surgery, medical litigation added to the pressure for making CME and training, generally, more rigorous:
`I think one of the factors might have been the increasing rate of medical litigation, of alleged under-performance by medical practitioners. Certainly, it is a fact that the number of cases brought to the solicitors have increased almost exponentially over the last 15 years, and I think it became clear that the proportion of these cases where there was alleged under-performance, there might have been some justification for the allegations that were made; certainly not all, but some.' [373]
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Footnotes
[367] T28 p.75 Sir Barry Jackson
[368] T28 p.30 Sir Barry Jackson
[369] T28 p.76 Sir Barry Jackson
[370] WIT 0048 0145 Sir Barry Jackson; `Most technical developments are simply minor improvements on an existing technique.'
[371] The relationship of CPD to the `learning curve' is dealt with in Chapter 14
[372] `This document [WIT 0048 0140], came out to some extent in response to the furore over the complications arising from the introduction of minimal access surgery', Sir Barry Jackson T28 p.75-6