RCPI publishes 2021 - 2024 Strategic Plan

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland has published its 2021 – 2024 strategic plan. The strategic plan sets out RCPI’s vision for the future and ten core strategic initiatives. It builds on core areas of focus for the College and provides a roadmap for the future.

The vision of our new strategy is to create a globally connected community of doctors improving people’s health. Our mission is to develop and support our learners, trainees, members and fellows to be leaders in healthcare delivery and transformation through training, education and advocacy.

Our core values are:

• Welcoming: Supportive, inclusive, open, caring and diverse
• Connecting: Engaged across faculties, with society, our partners and members across the globe
• Respectful: Mutual respect and how we behave internally with each other and with the public, learners, members, fellows, trainees and trainers
• Responsive: Innovative, progressive, agile and receptive to change
• Challenging: Inquisitive, questioning, ambitious, brave and independent
• Trustworthy: Trusted because of our heritage, professionalism, reputation and honesty

 RCPI’s three main areas of activity under the strategy are: 

• Education, Professional Development and Lifelong Learning
• Specialist Training
• Healthcare Leadership, through advocacy, influence, expertise and support

At the centre of what we do are our learners, trainees, members, fellows and society.

Strategic Objectives

We have four core strategic objectives:

1. Forward Thinking – Ensuring we continue to innovate and evolve; incorporating best practice and the latest thinking into all our offerings and into everything we do.
2. Globally Active – Being an active global group of doctors with an increased presence across the world and greater international membership, collaborating and sharing knowledge and expertise across borders.
3. Dynamic Organisation – Being a responsive, agile, efficient organisation with leading technologies, efficient processes and the right skillsets and expertise to enable us to provide an excellent and valuable experience to all our stakeholders.
4. Financial Strength – Being financially independent with additional and diverse revenues from both national and international markets and from both public and private sectors; allowing us to invest to make us stronger and better at what we do.

Strategic Initiatives

The strategy is underpinned by ten core strategic initiatives:

1. To enhance the quality of our training programmes and supports offered to ensure they meet the needs of doctors
2. To develop our exam membership offering to best meet the needs of doctors
3. To extend our global engagement and enhance our international training programme offering
4. To measure and improve core RCPI processes and use data to support evidence-based decision making
5. To promote excellence across the organisation to maximise performance and realise College goals
6. To offer lifelong learning opportunities
7. To be the voice of physicians, shaping and influencing healthcare policy, at a national level
8. To create a new membership model and enhanced membership engagement
9. To develop, preserve, catalogue and make accessible RCPI’s heritage collections
10. To champion equality, diversity and inclusion in all College activity

Professor Mary Horgan, RCPI President said: "This strategic plan builds on core areas of focus for the College, provides a roadmap for the future and sets out our priorities for the next three years."

Dr Terry McWade, CEO at RCPI said: "The 2021-2024 strategy shapes the future of RCPI. It provides an opportunity to transform the College through training, education and healthcare leadership. This strategy acts as an enabler to everything that we want to do and will position RCPI as a forward thinking, globally active, dynamic and sustainable organisation."

The RCPI strategy was informed and developed in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders including the RCPI Council, Executive, senior management and staff as well as external stakeholders.