The MRCGP SCA Consultation Skills Course
Course Director: Prof Rajesh Varma · with a faculty of experienced GP trainers and SCA/CSA examiners
Royal Society of Medicine · Wigmore Room, 4th Floor · 1 Wimpole Street, Marylebone, London W1G 0AE
Registration 08:30 · course 09:00–17:00 · free of charge · coffee and lunch included · 20 delegate places
A full day of observed, timed consultations — marked the way the examiners mark
Twenty-two cases across three circuits and two full-length mock SCA stations, built to the RCGP's published blueprint. Your tutors play the patient and mark you against the three SCA domains — Data Gathering and Diagnosis, Clinical Management and Medical Complexity, Relating to Others — and you receive written, domain-mapped feedback on every case you consult in. Everything you need on the day is on the pages below.
Course pages
SCA Course hub
The index of every page on the day — timetable, exam guide, all 22 stations and the reflection form in one place. Bookmark this on your phone.
Timetable and rotations
The running order, your group's station sequence for each circuit, the three roles within a group, and how the Mock SCA runs.
The exam and the mark scheme
The SCA in one page, what a Pass looks like in each domain, the generic mark scheme used at every station, the 26 feedback statements and the timing checkpoints.
Real-time station feedback, marking and reflection
After every consultation you complete a short digital reflection on your phone. It captures the tutor's grades and feedback statement, what you will keep and change, and your own learning notes — and a copy is emailed to you immediately as your record of that station, with a link back to the full case for revision.
How to complete it — three minutes per station
- Consult, then listen to the tutor's verdict: three domain grades (Clear Pass / Pass / Fail / Clear Fail), a global rating and one feedback statement.
- Open the form. Use the "Write my reflection" button at the bottom of that station's page (it pre-selects the station), scan the QR code on the tutor's table, or use the button below and choose the station yourself.
- Enter your email and name (no Google sign-in needed), your group and your role at the station.
- Record the grades the tutor gave, the global rating, and tick the feedback statement(s) attached.
- Write three lines: keep · change · the tutor's feedback in your own words — then your reflection.
- Submit. Your copy arrives by email within a minute. Repeat at every station; there is no limit.
Examiner-Observers and Observers can also submit for a station they marked or timed — choose your role in the form. Your entries across the day are your personal action plan; look for the feedback statement that recurs.
The stations
Each station page contains the candidate brief, the role-player script (tutors only), the generic mark scheme with the key points for that case, links to the relevant NICE and NICE CKS guidance, and the reflection button. Delegates: open the script and mark scheme only after you have consulted at that station.
Starter demonstrations · 09:00–09:40
Starter A · Indigestion Starter B · Knee pain
Circuit 1 · Undifferentiated presentations, urgent and unscheduled care · 09:40–11:00
Station 1 · Tiredness Station 2 · Feverish child (tel) Station 3 · Headache Station 4 · Early pregnancy Station 5 · Bowel symptoms Station 6 · Back pain
Circuit 2 · Long-term conditions, multimorbidity, prescribing, investigations and results · 11:20–12:45
Station 7 · Diabetes Station 8 · Asthma Station 9 · Atrial fibrillation (tel) Station 10 · Falls Station 11 · Painkillers Station 12 · PSA result (tel)
Circuit 3 · Mental health, health disadvantage and vulnerabilities, the professional dilemma · 13:15–15:15
Station 13 · Low mood Station 14 · Weight loss Station 15 · Poor sleep Station 16 · Abdominal pain Station 17 · Seizure Station 18 · Care home call (tel)
Mock SCA · full 12-minute exam frame · 15:35–16:45
About the course
Who it is for
GP registrars at any stage of training preparing for the SCA — the clinical consultation component of MRCGP, sat remotely in ST3. The consulting skills rehearsed here also exceed the standard expected by the GMC's MLA CPSA and PLAB 2, and transfer to every postgraduate clinical examination.
How it runs
Groups of three rotate through all six stations of each circuit. One consults, one marks as Examiner-Observer, one keeps the timing checkpoints. Roles rotate at every station, so everyone consults twice per circuit. Two volunteers sit a full-length mock in the afternoon, marked live by the faculty and by the room.
The venue
Royal Society of Medicine, Wigmore Room, 4th Floor, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1G 0AE. Bond Street and Oxford Circus stations are a short walk. Registration and coffee from 08:30; lunch and afternoon refreshments provided. Bring a phone for the reflection form; nothing else is needed.
This page is the hub for the 12 September 2026 course. Future dates will be announced here and on the MD Acumen courses page. Enquiries: r.varma@mdacumen.com.
Editorial stamp · MRCGP SCA Consultation Skills Course · Course page v2.0 · 12 September 2026 · Prof Rajesh Varma, Course Director · MD Acumen Ltd. Formative training material; not a prediction of exam performance.