Recommendation BRIS-81: Establish Medical Education Standards Board (MESB) under GMC for postgraduate training
From Bristol Heart Inquiry — Final Report, published 18 July 2001.
Recommendation
In relation to doctors, we endorse the proposal to establish a Medical Education Standards Board (MESB), to co-ordinate postgraduate medical training. The MESB should be part of and answerable to the GMC which should have a wider role. (See Recommendation 70.)
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say not accepted (27 February 2026)
This recommendation was not accepted by the Government. Please see Recommendation 46 (Professional standards)
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Not accepted”. Table row: section 6.2 No. 81, PDF page 108.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
The Government rejected this recommendation.
In its January 2002 response, the Department of Health said that post-graduate training needed to take into account the needs of the NHS as well as the needs of individual clinicians, meaning the Medical Education Standards Board needed to have closer links with the NHS.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 6.2 No. 81, PDF page 98.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding