RCPE Council Statement regarding MRCPUK Examinations

Following a meeting of the Council of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPEd) on 21 February 2025, the Council of the RCPEd apologises unreservedly to all those who have been adversely affected by the release of incorrect examination results from the September 2023 Part 2 written MRCPUK examination.  We are truly sorry that this has happened and for the situation in which those affected now find themselves.  

We do not underestimate the potential impact of this event on individual doctors and their families, who already work hard in highly stressed and highly stressful clinical settings to deliver care to patients in the UK and around the world. We are fully committed to supporting affected candidates in any way that we can, wherever they live and work and whatever their current post. 

We will support the Federation crisis phone line service to provide a rapid access, compassionate and listening service to affected candidates. Many senior clinicians from all three Colleges have already made themselves available to speak individually with affected candidates via the contact line +44 203 0751515. If you would like to support that work, contact us at k.wilson@rcpe.ac.uk.  We will also assist Federation in delivering all the support requests expressed in the three Colleges’ residents’ letter and the Presidents’ meeting with residents, including a webinar for affected candidates and frequent and accurate information updates. We all want the response to be as rapid, personalised and empathic as is possible, and acknowledge that we won’t know the specific impacts on individual candidates in the UK and around the world until the initial contact conversations are completed.

 Much strong and supportive work is urgently underway at Federation and in the Deaneries. Such work can easily pass unseen, and the more of this work that is clearly visible to candidates the more reassurance will be provided. 

Our Council also strongly supports the principle that affected candidates must experience the minimum disruption possible in their careers as a consequence of this event. MRCPUK is a mandatory component of the UK postgraduate internal medicine pathway, and we agree it is therefore necessary for affected doctors to pass the examination before they can be certified in internal medicine. Beyond this, we will work with the GMC and the statutory education bodies in the four nations to seek an outcome that is fair not only to those affected by this situation but also fair to all other doctors who are currently in the UK training system.  Some decisions are not however in the direct gift of the Colleges – collaborative working is the key to achieving fair and balanced outcomes. 

Candidates outside the UK will need advice and support according to the requirements of their own local training environments, particularly in those where MRCPUK is a mandatory component and we will support those discussions at their own or their system leaders’ request.

We unreservedly support Federation’s swift announcement that  examination fees will be refunded, that a resit will be free of fees and that other help will be tailored to individual circumstances. Beyond this, our College will additionally provide free access to all RCPE CPD activities relevant to examination preparation and consider what further support we might be able to deliver to affected members once their full details are known. 

We also unreservedly support the need for an independent review and have been assured by the Federation that this specific situation has been an isolated occurrence, and that the integrity of all other exam diets has been confirmed.

Finally, we are aware that this news comes when it is already a challenging time to be a resident doctor, working under immense and intense pressure, often in very difficult conditions, and we do not underestimate the potential emotional toll of this episode. We again express our regret and our commitment to resolve as much as we can, as quickly as we can and as fairly as we can.