RCSI Surgical Affairs launched the Continuous Professional Development Support Scheme 2019/2020. This is an extensive programme offering 74 courses; 3 Certificate Programmes; Quality Improvement in Leadership, Medical Leadership in Practice, and Lean Healthcare Yellow Belt (Project based).  3 courses regionally, 3 conferences, and Professionalism in 21^st Century; 12 online modules.  These courses are specifically designed to support the professional development and training needs of NCHD’s in Surgery and Emergency Medicine. Please click here to view the comprehensive brochure.  Enrolment is now open for the 2019-2020 CPD Support Scheme. It will close on the 30th of September 2019.

RCSI Professional Competence Scheme, in consultation with the Medical Council has reviewed the length of time it keeps personal data and has determined how long personal information should be retained, according to legal/ business need.

The Medical Council requires that records are kept for a period of six years, (current PCS year plus previous five years), to fulfil obligations under the MPA 2007.

We are therefore required to delete records from the PCS portfolios which are older than six years.  If you have records older than six years and would like to retain these documents / records, we would encourage you to login to your portfolio and download these documents.  Further reminders and Guidelines on how to download your documents/records will be issued before any of your records are deleted.

The RCSI Professional Competence Scheme, Department of Surgical Affairs, is committed to ensuring it conducts its business in a way that upholds and promotes the privacy rights of individuals. The legislation governing the use of personal data is the General Data Protection Regulation (‘the GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

GDPR places significant obligations on organisations in relation to the processing of personal data and the data protection principles are a set of rules, which we must follow to ensure that we are processing personal data in accordance with the law.

According to these principles, RCSI Professional Competence Scheme, must only collect, use and store the personal data it requires to fulfil the legitimate business purposes that it has identified. In order to ensure that it is complying with the principle of Data Minimisation, this requires us to identify the minimum amount of personal data needed to properly fulfil the business purpose. We should collect and hold no more than this minimum amount.

Furthermore, under the principle of Storage Limitation, we are required to hold personal data no longer than necessary for the purpose by which it was obtained. Ensuring personal data is disposed of when no longer needed, helps to reduce the risk that it will become inaccurate, out of date or irrelevant.

With this in mind, we are requesting that you review your personal data stored by RCSI Professional Competence Scheme,  and determine if you need to retain any data older than six years. If so, you need to download this information from our system and retain elsewhere.  Any data falling outside our retention period of six years, will be securely deleted by 1^st May 2020 date. Further reminders and Guidelines on how to download your documents/records will be issued before any of your records are deleted.

The aim of creating a Professional Development Plan (PDP) is to document a process of self-analysis and set new and clearly definable educational goals for yourself in advance of the Professional Competence Scheme each year. It is not currently compulsory to complete a Professional Development Plan, however it is recommended that you do so.    Creating a PDP at the beginning of each Professional Competence Scheme year encourages you to plan your activities during the year and to set out goals for your personal development. It can also be used to reflect on and monitor your progress during the year.

Complete your Professional Development Plan and claim two CPD credits in the Internal Category

Having completed your PDP you may choose to review it with a professional colleague and you may each claim one CPD Credit in the Internal Category

At the end of the year (April 30th), you should review your PDP and assess whether you have met your goals.  You may claim one CPD credit in the Internal Category for reviewing your PDP at the end of the year. 

Full guidelines and forms are available here

The Medical Council recognise that periods of certified leave (maternity /Sick/Carers / Parental /  Bereavement / Adoptive leave) longer than three months may result in a doctor not being able to meet their obligations in relation to professional competence over that period.

If you are (or have been) absent from practice for three months or more during the professional competence year due to maternity or sick leave (which runs from 1st May - 30th April), you should inform RCSI PCS department.  Please complete the Form which is available on our Website or click here 

We will record the absence on your PCS portfolio and an annotation will be appear against the relevant year on your Statement of Participation. Where possible, you should try and maintain some engagement in maintenance of professional competence during your absence from practice. You may be required by the Medical Council to produce documentation supporting your absence from practice if you are selected for a Maintenance of Professional Competence Audit.

You can login to your RCSI PCS ePortfolio on your smartphone and save the mobile adapted version of PCS to open enabling you to view your details and upload activities.

Click here to see the step by step guide on how to add the PCS icon shortcut onto your phone

Click here to see how to upload certificates / cpd activity

The annual Millin meeting will take place in RCSI on Friday November 8th 2019. This year will focus on the theme of 'De-risking Surgery: for surgeons and patients'. There are 6 CPD credits for attending the day and you can find details of how to register here

For details on Events approved for External CPD credits by RCSI - click on Calendar of Events