Gastroenterologists, like many hospital specialists, are facing major changes in the way in which they work with general practitioners and develop hospital based gastroenterology and hepatology services. These changes will no doubt continue to evolve as the emphasis on primary care increases and the need for hospital specialists to provide rapid access to day care services expands. The development of new technologies such as advanced therapeutic endoscopy are putting increasing demands on gastroenterologists, while at the same time most continue to make a major contribution to general and emergency medicine services in their hospitals. The expansion and continued evolution of gastroenterology services in the United Kingdom has prompted the council of the British Society of Gastroenterology to set up a working party to consider how future service needs will drive this evolutionary process and to anticipate the training needs of the gastroenterologist and hepatologist of the future. To assist this process, a sample of 10% of consultant gastroenterologists was questioned about their current workload and how they might wish to change their job plans in the future (Appendix I). In parallel with this, the working party considered the training requirements for the future, made proposals for a curriculum, its implementation, and methods of assessment. The working party was made aware of the results of the survey towards the end of its deliberations and took these into account during the writing of this report. The work of the training working party was facilitated by Christine Farrell (director, clinical change programme) and Angela Towle (project manager for medical education) of the King's Fund Centre, London.

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