Moral Victory to BAPIO
The Honourable judge Mr Mitting while delivering his judgement said the claim had been brought in good faith and in the public interest, expressing hope that it would lead to progress. “The bringing of this claim is likely, in the end, to bring something of benefit to the medical profession,” he said and concluded by describing the outcome for Bapio as “if not a legal victory then a moral success”.
The high court judge warned the RCGP that it must change its assessment process after acknowledging that ethnic minority medical graduates were put at a disadvantage by the current assessment”. “Endless amount of research has been commissioned to date with no solutions or action points, it has taken a court case to effect action”. “RCGP should now take action, including by selecting more representative examiners and role-players for the assessment”.
The judge further commented “If it does not act and its failure to act is the subject of a further challenge in the future, it may well be that it will be held to have breached its duty,”.
We are naturally exam extremely disappointed with the verdict. We will study the judgement in detail to see why despite stating this was a moral victory for BAPIO, asking RCGP to change conduct of the exam and agreeing that both RCGP and GMC did not follow the letter of the law in performing their mandatory PSED the court fell short of ruling in our favour. We will be discussing an appeal with our lawyers.
However, what is clear is that now the RCGP has a legal duty to find a solution to the problem. The ripple effect is on the colleges that they are looking in to their practice of examination to ensure that there is fairness and equality. This would not have happened without BAPIO’s legal challenge.
Thus we may have lost the battle but we are how to pass lab test likely to win the war in the end to the benefit of BMEs, IMGs and all UK doctors’!
BAPIO legal team