Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS)
Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) is a professional
qualification to practise as a surgeon in the British Isles. It is
bestowed by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Royal
College of Surgeons in Ireland (chartered 1784), Royal College of
Surgeons of Edinburgh (chartered 1505), and Royal College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Glasgow.
The
original fellowship was available in general surgery and in certain
specialties - ophthalmic or ENT surgery, or obstetrics and gynaecology -
which were not indicated in the initials. It came to be
taken
mid-way through training.
There are
now a range of higher fellowships, taken at the end of higher specialist
training and often in narrower fields, the first of which was FRCS (Orth)
in orthopaedics. Others include FRCS(Urol) in urology and FRCS(OMFS) in
maxillofacial surgery.
The
Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons
To avoid
confusion, the original fellowship was renamed to either membership MRCS
or associate fellowship (AFRCS). Unfortunately this introduced a new
confusion, as the Royal Colleges also held qualifying examinations in
medicine, after which most of them awarded licentiate diplomas (LRCP,
LRCS, etc). However the Royal College of Surgeons of England used to
award its membership at this level, in conjunction with the Licentiate
of the Royal College of Physicians of London, so thousands of doctors
have "MRCS, LRCP" in place of or in addition to "MB BS", etc, without
being specialised in surgery.
Useful Links:
The Royal College of Surgeons of
England
The Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland
The Royal College of Surgeon of
Edinburgh
