Celebrating a landmark for our membership clinical exam

Last month, our exam lead in Saudi Arabia, Professor Abdulmoein Al-Agha and his colleagues ran their 30th MRCPCH Clinical event in Jeddah. More than 1,500 candidates have sat this exam in just over a decade in the centre - a phenomenal contribution by a hard-working team!
30 in gold balloons

On average, there were just over 50 candidates per sitting since the first exam in May 2011. This marks an exceptional contribution to raising global child health standards to RCPCH membership level.

There have been challenges... The day before the 29th diet exam, Jeddah was subjected to a deluge and roads looked impassable. The team needed to ensure that the role players, on which the exam depends, could travel to the exam centre. Calmly, seamlessly and efficiently, colleagues were on the phones until midnight to ensure role players could attend and the exam go ahead.

the team is always open to suggestions and change

Cake to celebrate 30th MRCPCH Clinical exam in Jeddah, with image = plus balloons in a gold 30, plus balloon flowers
The team celebrated with cake and balloons!

Our Joint Principal Regional Examiner, Charlotte Daman-Willems commented that "organisation is now faultless with both examiners and candidates well supported”. In describing the team, she told us, “their warmth and hospitality is also infectious in the best possible way”.

Fellow Joint Principal Regional Examiner, Parakkal Raffeeq added, “the team is always open to suggestions and change. The Royal College during the last two years has made many changes with the way the exams have been conducted and they have never had a problem with updating.” He attended exams in Jeddah, and noted that adapting to changes “was done so efficiently that no-one would have known that this was done after a gap of two years [COVID impact].”

Our Strategic Lead, Majeed Jawad said of Professor Al-Agha, the Saudi Arabia lead, “an excellent clinician and good teacher who was very keen to set up MRCPCH and DCH [Diploma of Child Health] centre.” Majeed further commented, “I must say Jeddah has hosted slightly larger number of candidates than other centres in the region. Professor Abdulmoein and his team work relentlessly to meet the standard and reduce the waiting list.”

On behalf of all those candidates, examiners, fellow professionals and RCPCH staff, we are deeply grateful to you.

Find out about becoming an examiner or host on our clinical exams around the world, helping doctors meet our membership requirements. Or contact the team on clinical.assessments@rcpch.ac.uk.