Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the quality and volume of musculoskeletal content in medical training match the prevalence of these conditions in the population.

The standard of training for doctors is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC). The GMC sets the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level, and approves courses and medical schools to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet these standards.

The curricula for postgraduate training are set by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for foundation training, and by the relevant individual royal colleges and faculties for specialty training. The GMC approves curricula and assessment systems for each training programme.

Whilst not all curricula necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.

Curricula across the specialties where doctors in training might regularly treat patients with musculoskeletal conditions will contain competencies relating to understanding and identifying these conditions and their symptoms.