Gleneagles Global Hospitals becomes the only Centre in Chennai to host the Membership examination for the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland
~ Gleneagles Global Hospitals signs a M.O.U with the esteemed Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland to host the MRCS Examination in Chennai ~
Chennai, January 19, 2017: Gleneagles Global Hospitals, a Parkway Pantai enterprise, today had the unique privilege of partnering with the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (RCSI). Gleneagles Global Hospitals signed a Memorandum of Understanding with RCSI to host the College’s membership examination from April 2017. A team from RCSI lead by Prof Cathal Kelly, CEO, RCSI, visited Chennai on 19th January, 2017 to sign the M.O.U with Gleneagles Global Hospitals, represented by Prof. Mohamed Rela, Director & Head- Institute of Liver Disease & Transplantation, Gleneagles Global Hospitals and Mr. Harish Manian, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Parkway Pantai. Along with Prof Kelly, Prof Hannah McGee, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, RCSI, Mr MichealMcGrail, Director of Corporate Strategy, RCSI, Mr EunanFriel, Managing Director, Healthcare Management Institute, RCSI and Mr Paul Nolan, Associate Director for International Programmes, RCSI were present at ITC Grand Chola to sign the M.O.U.
The Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons or MRCS examination is an intercollegiate exam that is common to all four Surgical Royal Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland. The format and the standard of the MRCS are identical across all exam centres of Colleges in Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. The exam is fully recognised both by the Medical Council of Ireland and by the General Medical Council in Great Britain. The membership exam has two separate components: MRCS Part A and MRCS Part B (OSCE). Candidates must first pass Part A before attempting the Part B (OSCE) exam.
Part A is a multiple-choice question exam that is held three times per year; in January, April, and September. All Colleges hold the exam on exactly the same date and at the same time in each of their different venues. RCSI offers the Part A exam at its centres in Ireland, Bahrain, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Malta and Saudi Arabia and now in Chennai at Gleneagles Global Hospitals.
Having successfully attempted the MRCS Part A exam, candidates can then go on to apply for the MRCS Part B (OSCE). This is an Objective Structured Clinical Examination that tests examinee’s knowledge and decision-making across a wide range of tasks. There are 18 examination stations assessing the broad content areas of: Anatomy and Surgical Pathology; Applied Surgical Science and Critical Care; Communication Skills, and; Clinical & Procedural Skills. Apart from these discrete content areas, four domains of the competent surgeon are also assessed across the stations of the OSCE: clinical knowledge and its application; clinical and technical skills; communication, and; professionalism.
Prof Cathal Kelly, CEO, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, said “The MRCS is a prestigious, internationally recognised quality standard. Holding this qualification demonstrates to colleagues, peers, and employers a surgeon’s knowledge, clinical skills and commitment to his or her practice. I am delighted today to sign an agreement with Gleneagles Global Hospitals that will see the MRCS exam being delivered in Chennai. This is an opportunity for two world-class organisations to work together to make the MRCS available to doctors in training in this area and the beginning of what we hope will be a long and valued partnership with the Gleneagles Global Hospitals group.”
Dr.K.Ravindranath, Chairman, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, said, “It is indeed a great privilege for Gleneagles Global Hospitals to get associated with the RCSI. I strongly believe that this formal tie-up will facilitate better knowledge exchange on highly specialized surgeries and cutting-edge technical know-how between two of our organizations. This will definitely prove to be a significant milestone for our hospital and benefit our surgeons and also the society at large."
Prof. Mohamed Rela, Director & Head- Institute of Liver Disease & Transplantation, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, said, “It is an honour to be associated with the RCSI that in its existence has groomed so many world class surgeons. I am extremely happy that we at Gleneagles Global Hospitals now will be able to provide a platform for surgeons from our city to join the elite RCSI.”
Mr. Harish Manian, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Parkway Pantai, said, “While the RCSI have hosted the MRCS exam across some centres in India, it is for the first time that such an examination is coming to Chennai. We at Gleneagles Global Hospitals are very proud that the RCSI have chosen our facility to host the MRCS exams. According to current plans Part A of the examination will be conducted by RCSI in Chennai from 2017 onwards with the ambition to host the Part B(OCSE) examination from 2018.”
In 2017, the MRCS Part A exam will take place on the 25th of April and the 5th of September. Interested candidates can apply online at RCSI’s Postgraduate exams portal https://postgradexams.rcsi.ie/. In order to apply for MRCS Part A, candidates will need to hold a primary medical qualification listed on the World Directory of Medical Schools. Candidates taking the MRCS examination with RCSI will benefit from a vast amount of online study material available through the college website aimed at improving their performance in this examination.
