To drive our mission forward, we ensure that professionals in O&G are able to access lifelong education and training opportunities via a College membership.
The revenue which the College receives from membership fees is a key resource that we use, in a variety of ways, to support these efforts.
The RCOG continues to champion the health of women and girls through our policy work. We meet with politicians for consultation on key issues, ensuring that women’s needs and experiences are well represented and considered by decision makers.
Membership fees support our campaign groups and taskforces as they work to keep topics such as abortion services and access to contraception high on the political agenda.
The Better for Women report aims to provide a holistic view of healthcare for women. A strategic approach is required across the life course to prevent predictable ill health and to address the determinants of health specific to women.
We produce a wide range of guidance and support resources for doctors, students, academics and the general public. Membership subscriptions help us to make this information to those in need for free.
The RCOG publish and share:
Creating educational programmes and support networks for our doctors is vital for the future of O&G. Healthcare professionals must continue to see the value and appeal of working within this field.
Hard work should be continually recognised with opportunities for further growth, in this way we hope to nurture and retain their dedication.
"During my career I had to take some time away from my clinical work, and had anxieties about returning. The guidance in the RCGO’s Return to Work Toolkit proved invaluable for this and helped me work with my employer."
RCOG Member
As well as the resources and guidance provided through us directly, the College also connects and fosters a global network of healthcare professionals. There are many ways the community support each other.
The Workplace Behaviour Champions, for instance, are a group of members who offer independent advice on interpersonal difficulties, while more informal peer-to-peer support is available for members who are looking for guidance on return to work options or non-clinical concerns.
Established in 2017, the Centre for Women’s Global Health is a dedicated team focused on improving the sexual and reproductive health of girls and women in low-income countries. Through global health, the RCOG is working to provide essential O&G training to areas in need.
These programmes are designed to help reduce maternal mortality rates, provide faster more effective treatment to cancer and to provide safe, respectful gynaecology care.
In 2020, the RCOG embarked on a three-year programme working to increase healthcare professionals' capacity to address the barriers to safe abortion and/or post-abortion care for women and girls globally.
Every year an estimated 25 million unsafe abortions take place around the world and it is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity worldwide. The risk of dying from an unsafe abortion is highest for women in Africa, where nearly half of all abortions happen in potentially dangerous circumstances1. Almost every death from unsafe abortion is preventable with the use of effective contraception, provision of safe abortion, and timely post-abortion care
Through our three year programme, Leading Safe Choices, the RCOG aimed to address the unmet need for family planning and abortion care in South Africa and Tanzania.
The programme was designed to upskill the existing health workforce and raise the priority of postpartum family planning (PPFP) and comprehensive post-abortion care (CPAC) amongst patients, providers and policy makers.
Read about our Leading Safe Choices programme in full.
Working with local partners, we provided midwives, nurses and doctors with emergency obstetric skills (EOS) training, both for their own practice and to enable them to teach further courses on EOS to their peers.
Healthcare providers in these communities are now more prepared to respond to and provide early intervention during labour. Ultimately, this programme can reduce the number of women and their newborns who die from obstetric complications.
Read about our Resilience in Obstetric Skills programme in full.
