Dorset GP Education Newsletter

 

November 2007

 

 

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 http://www.rcgp-curriculum.org.uk/PDF/curr_Brief%20guide%20for%20clinical%20supervisors%20aug07%20v3.pdf. 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