BMA asks RCGP to consider alternative GP trainee portfolio supplier amid ‘ongoing’ platform issues

The BMA has asked the RCGP to consider an alternative provider for its trainee assessment platform if issues with the current tool cannot be resolved. 

The union’s registrars committee has created a petition demanding action on the FourteenFish ePortfolio platform, the tool used by the college for its trainee portfolio. 

FourteenFish was acquired by EMIS (now Optum) in 2022, and is used by around 13,000 GP trainees in the UK, according to its website.   

The petition says the union has ‘serious concerns about Optum’s ability to provide a reliable and sustainable service that meets the needs of GP registrars and trainers’. 

‘We are concerned about the ongoing issues with the FourteenFish ePortfolio platform, including the withdrawal of the Consult function and wider operational problems following changes introduced by Optum.’ 

FourteenFish Consult, a free recording tool used by GP trainees to record consultations, was removed last October in a move the BMA criticised as ‘unilateral’. 

And in January the union raised concerns following unannounced system maintenance and changes to the platform’s login rules. 

The petition calls for ‘urgent mitigations to address the impact of ongoing platform issues’ and ‘reassurance that registrars would not be disadvantaged’ because of the changes.

It adds: ‘[We] express serious concerns about Optum’s ability to provide a reliable and sustainable service that meets the needs of GP registrars and trainers; [and] call on the RCGP to engage with registrars on the long-term future of the ePortfolio platform, including consideration of alternative provision models if current issues cannot be adequately resolved.’ 

GP registrars completing a workplace based assessment (WPBA) collect evidence for an educational supervisor’s report (ESR) every six months. At the end of training, annual review of competency progression (ARCP) panel decides on a trainee’s competence for licensing based on the evidence in the ESR and trainee portfolio. 

A registrar’s placement assessor is expected to submit evidence for the ESR to the FourteenFish platform. 

However, following updates to the platform in January, anyone completing a case must now register an account, a change the BMA said caused ‘significant stress’ for  registrars and trainers. 

The registrars committee co-chairs wrote to Optum in February demanding an explanation for the changes.

The FourteenFish Consult tool which was removed in October was developed for the now-defunct Recorded Consultation Assessment (RCA), but the BMA argued it was still a useful, cost-effective and GDPR-compliant tool for trainees to record consultations.    

The target number of signatures for the petition is 1,000 signatures and it currently has just under 800.

The BMA told Pulse said if the petition reaches 1,000 signatures, it would demonstrate that the strength of feeling about FourteenFish concerns go beyond the union or registrars committee and are shared more widely across the profession.

Professor Margaret Ikpoh, vice chair of the RCGP, told Pulse: ‘We are aware of the petition and understand the strength of feeling amongst some registrars on this issue. We will respond as appropriate, once it is formally submitted. 

‘We understand the inconvenience and frustration that recent performance issues with our Fourteen Fish platform have caused, and have taken feedback from stakeholders, including registrars, seriously. We continue to have regular discussions with our supplier and are working with them to improve both the platform’s stability and communications to registrars.

‘With regard to Fourteen Fish Consult, this function was developed to support the Recorded Consultation Assessment (RCA), meaning that thousands of GP registrars were able to qualify as planned and join the GP workforce during the pandemic. After the withdrawal of the RCA, the RCGP no longer maintained a contractual relationship with FourteenFish in relation to the Consult tool and usage of Consult dropped considerably.’

And a spokesperson for FourteenFish told Pulse: ‘We are committed to working in partnership with the RCGP to ensure that FourteenFish continues to meet users’ needs into the future.

‘FourteenFish Consult was originally launched to provide an alternative online tool for GP Registrars preparing for their assessments during the Covid-19 pandemic, designed to support the RCA exam format in use at that time. Following a change to the exam format in 2023, Consult was withdrawn in 2025.

‘We strive to provide an excellent service with our provision of training materials and services through FourteenFish.’