Mandatory criteria for the RCA

For RCA examinations from November 2020 onwards, you need required to submit a range of consultations that meet the mandatory criteria laid out by the RCGP.

Please note, as of July 2021, Clinical Examination will no longer be a mandatory criterion, and breast lumps (apart from those associated with the postnatal period) will no longer be considered for the mandatory criteria of maternal and reproductive health. 

Seeing if you have met all the mandatory requirements

First of all, you need to star the cases you plan to submit for the RCA.

Once you've done this, click this option...

Mandatory criteria page

We developed a page in to try and make it as simple as possible for you to see if they have met all the criteria. The status of each of the mandatory criteria is determined by your starred consultations, which are the ones that will be submitted for the exam.

We have split the "Essential clinical areas" that the RCGP specify into four separate criteria, giving seven criteria that you need to meet...

• 1) Case involving a child aged 16 years or younger (including by proxy)
• 2) Case involving an older adult (over 65 years)
• 3a) An acute problem that needs urgent investigation or referral
• 3b) Maternal and reproductive health case
• 3c) Mental health condition (within the DSM or ICD classifications)
• 3d) Case about a long-term condition (e.g. cancer, multi-morbidity or disability)

For each of these, you'll be able to see which of your consultations satisfy the criteria, based on what you've entered in the workbook for each consultation.

If you think one of your starred consultations meets the criteria but it's not listed, please edit the workbook for that consultation and make sure it's all complete.

Can a single consultation be used to satisfy more than one criteria?

Yes. For example, a case with a child with an acute problem that needed urgent referral would meet two criteria.

However, since each consultation can only have one clinical topic selected, there are some criteria that are mutually exclusive. For example it is not possible to select both "Reproductive health and maternity" and "Mental health" – you must choose the main topic for the consultation.

Recommended criteria

The RCGP recommend that you submit no more than two cases with the same main clinical topic.

Use the Clinical topic spread page to see how many consultations you have for each clinical topic. You can click on each of the topics to see a list of consultations.

You can also switch to "All consultations" to view the clinical topics for all your consultations, not just the ones you have starred.

You will still be able to submit your consultations for the RCA if you have more than two consultations for single clinical topic.