Report of the working party of the "UEMS Monospeciality Section on Pneumology" on training requirements and facilities in Europe

In the course of the free exchange of goods, services and persons within the European Common Market, the Pneumology Section of the European Union of Monospecialists (UEMS) spent many years in drawing up an inventory of the training programmes for pneumologists in the member countries. There was agreement about the areas of training, but considerable differences existed between member countries concerning the total length of training, especially the duration of the common trunk ("truncus communis") versus the period of specific training in pneumology. In order to establish a common position towards the optimal duration and content of the training of European pneumologists, a working party met at Leiden on 21–23 February 1990 (Dijkman (The Netherlands), Martinez Gonzales del Rio (Spain), Loddenkemper (Germany), Prowse (UK), and Siafakas (Greece)). The report, presented below, was discussed and accepted in the UEMS Pneumology Section and in the European School of Respiratory Medicine, and has recently been approved by UEMS and ERS.