Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the extent to which sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and epilepsy training is provided within medical school programmes.

The content and standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC), which is the competent authority for medical training in the United Kingdom. Its role is that of custodian of quality standards in medical education and practice. The GMC is an independent professional body. It has the general function of promoting high standards of medical education and co-ordinating all stages of medical education to ensure that students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values essential for professional practice.

Medical Schools are responsible for developing their own curricula, adhering to the standards set by the GMC in ‘Tomorrow’s Doctor’.

The GMC and medical schools therefore share the aim of ensuring that doctors are equipped to deal with the problems they will encounter in practice, including sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and epilepsy.