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 improve the training GPs receive on the treatment of menopausal symptoms and the prescription of hormone replacement therapy.

General practitioners are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients. NICE published a guideline on the diagnosis and management of menopause in November 2015 that includes recommendations on the prescribing of hormone replacement therapy.

All United Kingdom-registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) ‘Good Medical Practice’. In 2012 the GMC introduced revalidation which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, gives patients confidence doctors are up to date with their practice and promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.

The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the relevant medical Royal College and has to meet the standards set by the GMC. While curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they instead emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.