Joint Statement: Royal College of Anaesthetists and Health Education England

The Royal College of Anaesthetists and Health Education England are aware of a number of ST3 Anaesthetics applicants who have evidence that an error has occurred in the self-assessment verification process, but the difference between submitted and assessed score is less than five points. To date, there has been no acceptable route for these affected applicants to take to request a review.

It has been agreed that reviews will be offered to applicants in this situation, via the appeals process.  Appeals can be requested for the following reasons:

• feedback received states that a score is agreed, but the assessor score is lower than the applicant score for any given domain
• feedback states that the uploaded documents cannot be opened by the assessor, even though the applicant can open them
• or other clear transcription error.

There will be no opportunity to submit additional documents as part of the appeals process.

Appeals will not be accepted where the professional judgement of the assessor is disagreed with. There must be clear evidence that an error has occurred.

The Anaesthetics National Recruitment Office will email candidates with details of the appeals window and process shortly; the email address provided upon application will be used for this communication. Requests for appeal received outside of the published window will not be accepted or reviewed.

We would like to thank you for raising this issue and for your patience whilst a suitable resolution has been found.