Frequently Asked Questions

CESR stands for Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration. It was the former name for the process by which doctors who have not completed a UK CCT can demonstrate equivalence and gain specialist registration with the GMC. The process is now officially called the Portfolio Pathway.

The Portfolio Pathway is the GMC's current route to specialist registration for doctors without a UK CCT. Applicants submit a portfolio of evidence against the Specialty Specific Guidance (SSG) for their chosen specialty.

SSG documents are published by the GMC for each specialty. They define the competency framework, evidence requirements, and standards that Portfolio Pathway applicants must meet.

CCT is awarded after completing an approved UK specialty training programme. The Portfolio Pathway (formerly CESR) allows doctors to demonstrate equivalent competence through a portfolio of evidence without completing the formal UK training programme.

It varies significantly. Most applicants spend 6 to 18 months compiling their portfolio, though the evidence itself may span 5 to 10 years of clinical practice depending on the specialty's currency window.

MedNext CESR organises your CESR portfolio evidence against the GMC Specialty Specific Guidance for your specialty. It maps your uploads to framework units and evidence sections, tracks readiness, identifies gaps, and generates domain-ready submission PDFs.

67 specialties, covering surgical, medical, psychiatric, pathology, GP, emergency medicine, paediatrics, and other disciplines.

If the GMC publishes SSG for your specialty and it is in our 67-specialty dataset, yes. Browse the specialties page to check availability.

PDFs, DOCX files, images (JPEG, PNG), and other common document formats.

After uploading a document, you assign it to the relevant framework unit or evidence section. You can map a single piece of evidence to multiple sections if it demonstrates competence across areas.

Each specialty's SSG defines specific evidence sections. Common categories include training records, workplace-based assessments, clinical governance, audit, research, teaching, and professional development.

The currency window defines how recent your evidence must be. It varies by specialty — typically 5 to 10 years of clinical practice.

It depends on the specialty. Surgical specialties often require 800 to 1,000+ pages. Medical specialties may require fewer. The SSG for your specialty specifies the expected volume.

Some specialties (particularly surgical) require evidence of managing specific critical conditions at a defined competence level. These are listed in the specialty's SSG.

Surgical specialties may require procedural-based assessments (PBAs) for specific index procedures, with minimum assessor and competence level requirements.

£50 per month. Specialty guides are free to browse. The workspace — evidence upload, readiness tracking, and PDF export — requires a subscription.

Yes, cancel anytime. Monthly billing, no lock-in.

All 67 specialty pages with framework units, evidence sections, currency information, critical conditions, index procedures, and source document references.

Evidence is stored in private cloud storage with AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, and authentication-gated access controls. Only you and authorised administrators can access your files.

Yes, you can request deletion of your account and all associated evidence files at any time.