LAUSR

Doctors in the UK are assessed at the end of each training year by a mechanism called the annual review of competency progression (ARCP). The stakes are high: failure to progress may mean having to declare receipt of a failure outcome, forfeiting a pay rise or having training delayed. During the 2020–22 COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a training crisis, new ‘no blame’ outcomes for failing to progress were applied for some trainees (outcomes 10.1 and 10.2). This invites the question: why have ‘blame’ outcomes at all? Importantly, the current blame-centric ARCP process contains a loophole open to potential abuse: it is possible to enact career damage on a clinician under the guise of a progress review. It is also restrictive – an inflexible framework which struggles to adapt. This ‘Podium’ opinion article asks the question: why not make all ARCP outcomes no blame outcomes?