The Board of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has made the decision to defer the clinical exams by three months until late February 2022.
The exam, which is a test of clinical competency for year one registrars on the General Practice Education Programme (GPEP) will now be run in the week starting Monday, 28 February 2022, in Wellington.
The decision was made because of increasing anxiety surrounding the running of this critical event considering the ongoing unpredictably of COVID-19. Taking into consideration feedback from the examination team as well as other stakeholders, management considered a range of options for the Board’s review, with full deferral being the right choice.
Lynne Hayman, Chief Executive of the College said, "The decision to defer the clinical exam will reduce anxiety and uncertainty for our registrars, and provide them greater opportunity to complete a mock exam scenario.
"We’re developing New Zealand’s next cohort of Sepcialist GPs and want to ensure they are properly supported to do their best. This decision allows our registrars extra time for study and preparation, and to continue to gain important clinical experience making it the right thing to do."
Mrs Hayman said the College had the full support of Chief Examiner - Clinical Dr Sandra Jessop and the Censor-in-Chief Dr Kerryn Lum in this decision.
There is no change to the written exam timetable for GPEP year one registrars. About 220 of them will sit the GPEP written exam, across New Zealand, on 13 December 2021.