Royal Colleges focus on different medical areas. These include the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Anaesthetics, Royal College of Radiologists, Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
Each college has slightly different objectives that run in line with their specialist area. However, these are typically based on improving practise and maintaining standards through training, assessments, examinations and professional development.
The colleges are overseen by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges which was set up in 1974. It originally had 16 members who met quarterly; but no full-time officers, a permanent base and only a small budget. It now has eight full-time members of staff, who coordinate the work of the 21 permanent members drawn from the Medical Royal Colleges. It describes itself as playing a leading role in the areas of doctors' revalidation, training and education and aims to speak with a clear and sure voice on generic health care issues for the benefit of patients and health-care professionals.
The role and responsibly of the Royal Colleges has somewhat changed since they were first created as a result of the General Medical Council. The college is in charge of postgraduate education and training, so regulate first-year graduates from medical schools while they are classified as provisionally registered doctors.