1. Surgical Trainees are trainees under various training programmes accredited by the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong or the Hong Kong Intercollegiate Board of Surgical Colleges (HKICBSC).

2. Each trainee will be assessed by his/her supervisor every 3 months and monitored by, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong or HKICBSC every six months. The assessment should be endorsed by the Censor-in-Chief of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong or the Chairman of the Accreditation Committee HKICBSC semi- annually during the continuous training period.

3. Overseas training without prior approval in writing from either the Censor-in-Chief of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong or the Chairman of the Accreditation Committee HKICBSC before the date of registration and commencement of the local training programme will not be recognized by the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong or the HKICBSC.

4. All Basic Surgical Trainees registered after August 1996 must obtain the MCS of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong before they will be considered for entering the Higher Training programmes accredited by the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong.

5. FRCS obtained after the year 2000 and MRCS obtained overseas will not be considered equivalent to the MCS of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong.

6. There will not be any automatic recognition of overseas qualifications being equivalent to the exit qualifications for the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong. All candidates of the exit examinations conducted by the College must undergo local training of not less than 12 months at a training centre accredited by the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong or supervised by a trainer, who must be approved by the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong in that specialty.

7. Trainees may apply for suspension from the continuous training programme for a maximum period of 6 months and such application must be made beforehand. It is only, under exceptional conditions (eg health, family or personal reasons) that the suspension period can be longer than 6 months.

8. Any trainees who do not satisfy the standards set by, or under training assessments consecutively twice or non-consecutively three times will be disqualified from the basic or higher training programmes. A trainee can appeal to the Appeal Subcommittee of the College concerned or the Chairman of the HKICBSC against such disqualification (provided that notice of such appeal is lodged with the Secretary of the Appeal Subcommittee within 21 days from the date of Notice in writing of such disqualification to the trainee).

Prepared by, Dr James HWANG
Chairman, Training Subcommittee, General Surgery Board, CSHK
Chainman, Accreditation Committee, HKICBSC
Chainman. Hong Kong Regional Subcommittee, RACS Board of General Surgery
(Passed at CSHK Educational & Examination Subcommittee & Council Meetings on 22 June 2000)