RCP senior censor and vice president for education and training Dr Dan Furmedge reflects on his first party conference season in the role and explains why he thinks that bringing the experiences of physicians into political discussions matters.
One of the things I have quickly come to appreciate since taking up the role of RCP senior censor and vice president for education and training is just how important it is that we take the experiences beyond the walls of the college and into the rooms where decisions about the future of health and care are discussed. This year was my first party conference season as vice president, and it provided a very different perspective on the RCP’s role in influencing change.
>> Read RCP puts the priorities of physicians on the political agenda
At the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, I spoke with parliamentarians about workforce pressures, medical training and what we want to see from the workforce plan. I took part in an RCP hosted event on the NHS workforce alongside Helen Morgan MP, the Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson. Aside from how well attended the event was by MPs, professional groups and other organisations, what struck me was the value of being able to move the conversation beyond headline workforce numbers. Workforce planning is, of course, about having enough doctors. But for physicians it is also about whether people want to stay working in the NHS, whether they have access to high-quality training and whether we are planning for the specialties and skills that patients will need in future.
As a membership body, we hear from physicians every day, during trust and health board visits, through our surveys, committees and networks, and, of course, by email, phone and letter. At work in the NHS, we exchange ideas, share our experiences and expertise with resident doctor colleagues, maybe even catch up with friends over a coffee in the hospital canteen. This is the information not captured in health performance statistics, but it is vital intelligence, and that is where a professional body like ours has something particularly important to contribute to political debate: we can connect national decisions with the reality of delivering patient care and training the next generation of doctors. I am also struck at how important and well respected our voice is as the RCP.
Across six party conferences this year, the RCP raised workforce, retention and medical training, neighbourhood and community care, public health and prevention, and the priorities in our new 2026–30 strategy: connection, standards, voice and renewal.
At the Labour conference, we hosted a joint event with the Royal College of General Practitioners on neighbourhood health. My colleague Professor Tom Solomon, RCP academic vice president, contributed to separate workforce discussions, while RCP president Professor Mumtaz Patel met parliamentarians to discuss public health and prevention. At the Conservative conference, Mumtaz met members of the shadow health team and discussed the RCP’s priorities for the workforce plan.
And in Wales, at the Plaid Cymru conference, our joint vice presidents Dr Ben Thomas and Professor Sam Rice hosted a main-stage discussion about Community by Design, integrated care closer to home, and prevention of ill-health, and how we could make that work. Central to that discussion were many of the same issues we have encountered elsewhere: workforce capacity, infrastructure, digital systems and ensuring clinicians are involved in the design of new services.
My first conference season has brought home a simple point: the RCP must be able to talk to political parties across the spectrum and that we offer a strong and influential voice. We will not agree with every politician or proposal, and nor should we – our role is to bring an independent clinical voice to those conversations and make the case for what physicians and patients need.
That matters particularly for workforce and training. Decisions made now about the medical workforce, postgraduate training and where services are delivered will affect today’s physicians and the next generation entering medicine. Our new report, Training physicians for the future, argues that postgraduate medical education must be treated as a core NHS function, not something that happens only when service pressures allow. High-quality training and patient care are not competing priorities. Protected learning time, effective supervision and jobs designed around development are essential to attracting and retaining the workforce patients need.
Training quality must also be visible and accountable, with action when it falls short. We need flexible career pathways and progression based on demonstrated capability, while maintaining consistent standards. Future physicians will need broad generalist skills and deep specialist expertise to work across care settings and manage growing complexity.
As vice president for education and training, I want political decisions to be informed by those delivering and undertaking postgraduate medical training. That means listening to our members, understanding what is and is not working, and ensuring that evidence reaches policymakers. That’s why we will keep making the case for a system that supports physicians to provide excellent patient care and pressing for medical training reform to be implemented.
Ultimately, the success of training reform will be measured not by the ambition of another review, but by whether high-quality training is properly protected, funded and delivered. Those practising medicine are best placed to shape its future, and the RCP’s role is to ensure their experience informs the decisions that affect them and their patients.
Dr Dan Furmedge FRCP
RCP senior censor and vice president for education and training
