| What a year it has been! Thanks to all those who have
worked so hard to see the successful introduction of the e-portfolio for
the nMRCGP and the many other changes that have occurred in the last few
months
The Dorset Team
Most of you will know by now that Jane Bell has resigned as Head of School
for GP at Wessex Deanery. Richard Weaver is capably taking over the role
for the time being and I am sure you will all join me in wishing him well
in this work.
Nick Panton has taken over as GP Tutor in Poole. Thank you to Susi Caesar
who has been working as a locum in this capacity since the retirement
of Peter Leigh. With Nick, Susi and Peter Blick as the GP Tutor team we
look forward to an excellent programme of postgraduate education.
Tabitha Smith and Chris Elfes join Mark Taylor and Ian Wyer as Course
Organisers, working hard to see the successful support of GPRs with the
GPR curriculum and nMRCGP. They plan to work hard with trainers and to
continue to develop the high quality Day Release Course.
Nick Lyons has been seconded to work on appraisal work at Deanery until
March 2008 and Jonathan Foulkes has taken over some of his work for this
period. Jonathan is rapidly becoming the expert on e-portfolio and will
be in the GP Office to answer queries and offer support
Day Release Course
The Day Release Course, held on Wednesdays (usually at Poole Postgraduate
Centre) has undergone some changes. GPRs will meet on the 1st, 2nd and
4th Wednesdays of the months. On the 3rd Wednesday those doctors in the
hospital component of the Vocational Training Scheme will meet (ST1 in
the mornings and ST2 in the afternoons). If a 5th Wednesday happens, this
will be used for team development. Trainers should thus be aware that
GPRs should be in surgery, or following agreed programmes of study, on
3rd and 5th Wednesdays
Training Posts
It was only in the last newsletter that the move from 6 month to 4 month
training posts in hospital was highlighted. The publication of the Tooke
report puts these changes on hold (and potentially reverses much of the
Foundation programme) as 6 month posts are now felt to be better. We will
see!
GPR posts are expected to increase from 12 to 18 months in due course.
It is unclear when that will happen, but this is delaying the placement
of GPRs currently in the scheme. We will let you know more as soon as
we know more!
New GP Trainers
We welcome the following GPs as trainers. It is quite a commitment to
be approved as a new trainer and a “well done” as well as
a welcome is due
| Mark Bettley-Smith |
Madeira Medical Centre, Poole |
| Douglas Clarke |
Village Surgery, Poole |
| Julie Henshelwood |
Whitecliffe Mill Street Surgery, Blandford |
| Roberta King |
The Surgery – Gervis Road, Bournemouth |
| David Laird |
Wyke Regis Health Centre, Wyke Regis |
| Chris Millner |
The Prince of Wales Road Surgery, Dorchester |
| Mark Spring |
The Surgery – Gervis Road, Bournemouth |
| Jonathan Turner |
Talbot Medical Centre, Bournemouth |
Recruitment
You will all remember the controversy following MTAS recruitment earlier
this year. GP recruitment was praised rather than vilified, and is likely
to take place in a very similar way in 2008. We may be seeking help with
the selections again. If you would like to be involved then please do
let us know
GP Appraisals
Many of you will know that the Deanery, through NHS Education South Central
(NESC) have taken over the administration and provision of appraisal in
Dorset PCT. This is part of a regional wide plan to try and better link
educational provision and appraisal.
Educational Supervisors
Alistair Watkins and Andrew Longley (Programme Organisers) have agreed
to offer the interviews and support for those doctors in the hospital
components of their training. As this includes helping them with their
assessments and e-portfolio this represents a lot of work and we are grateful
to them for this offer. If any trainers feel strongly that they would
like to carry out this role for future GPRs then perhaps they could let
Nick Lyons know
nMRCGP, the e-portfolio and the new assessments
Hopefully by now all of you will have got your Login and Password for
the
e-Portfolio. If not, then please let us know. Similarly if you are having
problems accessing your GPR’s e-Portfolio data then get in contact
with us at the office.
Even if you have not got a GPR at present I would ask you to familiarise
yourselves with the system. It is not entirely intuitive and needs a bit
of experience to find your way around. The RCGP have provided a dummy
Login & Password so that GP Trainers can play around but without fear
of making fatal errors and wiping out data. Please Use LOGIN:
trainer1 PASSWORD: rcgp.
For Dorset, Jonathan Foulkes is the lead person on the e-Portfolio so
he is the man to contact with your queries. One recent common question
is what standard is applied when the GPR has one of the assessments for
the WPBA. The RCGP has published a series of short guides on its website.
Have a look at the Guide for Clinical Supervisors at the Royal
College of General Practitioners Curriculum Site. In this document
(section 4) it clearly states that the assessor should only say that the
GPR is competent if he/she is ready for independent practice. Do not make
any allowance for the fact that the GPR may only be for instance in their
first month. There should be a gradual improvement in the GPRs abilities.
In fact if the GPR is apparently competent from the start of their training
period this will prompt a detailed examination of their e-Portfolio evidence
by the Deanery Panel.
It is going to be tough going for Trainers and GPRs alike (as well as
us involved with the Deanery). We know that there are errors in the data
stored and we are trying to get things straight but it will take time.
If you find any errors then email the information to Jen at hscgp@bournemouth.ac.uk
hopefully with time we will all find it working perfectly – fingers
crossed!
Centre for General Practice Website
The website is undergoing an overhaul, under the leadership of Dr Ian
Wyer. The new site should be up and running in the New Year and we hope
you will find it useful and informative. Those who would like a sneak
preview or would like to help with the site development could perhaps
let us know in the GP Office
Nick Lyons and Jonathan Foulkes
Centre for General Practice
Bournemouth University
Royal London House (R613)
Christchurch Road
Bournemouth
BH1 3LT
Telephone: 01202 962165
|
