Dr Clare Gerada presents a detailed, though hardly comprehensive, account of the ‘glitches' with training so far and now proposes extending it – but from what?
Dr Clare Gerada: Yes there have been glitches but were making GP training even better
The regulations clearly state a minimum of 72 hours of emergency out-of-hours experience, the most demonstrably flouted of all regulations.
There is no published minimum for total experience, in terms of number of sessions, days or patients seen. No senior educational academic knows the minimum, and few have attempted to work it out.
Registrars are entitled to eight types of leave with two, special and unpaid, rarely taken. The other six can be broadly divided into leave-accruing leave, and non-leave-accruing leave.
Extending the trainee year to three years, by working half-time and taking maternity leave, produces interesting results when considering compound leave entitlement.
The contract specifically states Bank-holiday entitlement is per calendar year, thus trebling this right. Annual leave is per annum, but makes no mention as to whether this is calendar, academic, or pro rata, unlike sick leave which is similarly worded, but specifically includes pro rata.
No figure has yet been produced for the minimum acceptable level of clinical contact, despite a specific request for clarification to our local deanery two years ago, when my estimate was 27 days.
If the college is incapable of working this out, what merit can there be in a submission arguing for extended training?
From Dr Tom Robinson, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan
Gerada: Yes, there have been glitches, but we're making GP training even betterYou can read Dr Clare Gerada's piece, and initial comments left on the article, by clicking here.
