Everyone acknowledges that the educational case for four-year training is very strong, but - depending on which year it comes into place - there will obviously be one year where there will not be trainees coming through. There will have to be a gap.
Without getting a huge number of CCTs in that one year, some practices may struggle to replace retired GPs. We are already hearing about increasing work in general practice in general but if you don’t then have newly qualified GPs coming out, some practices who are hoping to recruit may struggle a bit more.
There are many salaried GPs in the system and a lot of sessional GPs who may take more sessions on. Realistically, it is difficult to say how much of an impact this will have. It is something that needs to be looked at in more detail and we have to mitigate against the loss of trainees.
They will still be in primary care predominantly. But the fourth year is not all based in general practice. They would be doing sessions in the community and in hospitals, etc.
The idea is that that extra experience would make them essentially a much more rounded practitioner. I would hope that once you get the new trainees, it will mitigate against the loss for one year.
Dr Krishna Kasaraneni is chair of the GPC GP Trainees Subcommittee
