Exclusive The BMA has raised concerns about the growing shortage of GP trainers and warned it is ‘increasingly’ seeing non-GPs appointed as training programme directors and supervisors.
The union’s GP registrars committee said there are concerns that non-GPs are increasingly becoming involved in overseeing some aspects of GP training, including allied health professionals ‘who have never worked as a GP’.
The committee’s co-chairs warned that ‘intense workload pressures’ in general practice are ‘making it harder for GPs to take on trainer roles’.
And they said that if this trend continues, there is a risk of ‘depriving future GPs of the invaluable insight and mentorship that only experienced GPs can provide’.
It comes after the Government specified GP training as a priority investment area while announcing a £29bn funding boost for the NHS in last week’s long-term spending review.
Dr Cheska Ball and Dr Oliver Salazar, co-chair and interim co-chair of the BMA GP registrars committee, told Pulse: ‘Nurses, therapists and paramedics play an essential role in delivering excellent patient care as part of the wider general practice team.
‘However, we are increasingly seeing non-GPs appointed as training programme directors and supervisors – a reflection of the growing shortage of GP educators in England.
‘Intense workload pressures in general practice are making it harder for GPs to take on trainer roles.
‘If this trend continues, we risk depriving future GPs of the invaluable insight and mentorship that only experienced GPs can provide.
‘GP trainers bring a unique understanding of the challenges and realities of general practice and their role as training programme directors must be protected.’
Last year, NHS England set out an ambitious workforce plan – currently being revised – to expand medical school and GP training places, but a Pulse analysis revealed that achieving these goals would require large increases to trainer capacity.
And the GMC warned that these plans for expanding the medical workforce ‘will fail’ if the NHS does not prioritise trainer capacity and support, as there are ‘clear signs of strain’ among the medical trainer workforce, which will ‘only intensify’ as training places increase.
The Doctors’ Association UK GP spokesperson Dr Steve Taylor agreed that ‘there is no substitute’ for GP trainers in general practice.
He told Pulse: ‘It is vital that GPs are trained by GPs. There is no substitute for this. As a GP trainer, with decades of experience, I can’t see how this can be done without GPs.
‘It is vitally important that training is safeguarded, that GPs are reimbursed appropriately and that priority is given to training the next generation of GPs.’
The BMA has also raised serious concerns about the ‘dilution’ of GP training quality via new methods where more learning takes place online.
At the UK LMCs conference last month, the GP registrars committee warned of the rollout of a new training approach where a ‘significant portion of what was direct patient contact time is now spent behind a computer’ doing e-learning modules.
The committee also said that GPs are working for free in order to stay on the performers list as a result of the unemployment crisis. In an exclusive interview with Pulse, the GP registrars committee co-chairs said this is a ‘real issue’ since GPs may ‘lose the whole ability to practise’.
Pulse has looked in detail at the challenges within GP training capacity and the shortage of GP trainers.
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If we have too many GPs qualifying from VTS scheme, cuasing unemployment, then we do not have a shortage of GP Trainers.
GPs need to concentrate on getting adequate funding to run GP practices and employ newly-qualified GPs, without needing to give GP work to non-Doctors.
This should not be acceptable to GPs, trainees or the people who employ these non GPs. The basic credentials to be shortlisted should be working GP on the performers list. Why isn’t that being done?
I am very surprised that non-GPs are being appointed as programme directors and educational supervisors on NHS GP Training Programmes. Although other professional groups can be involved in GP training, leadership roles should always be held by GPs.
Increasingly General Practice should be avoided as a career choice by today’s bright young things. It’s under attack in all 4 regions of the uk
Non-GPs appointed? This sounds ridiculous and who exactly has exalted themselves by making such illicit appointments?
Does the RCGP not have an important opinion on this sinister matter? They need to be consulted urgently, surely, to give a definitive pronouncement as this sounds so wrong. Also, Government Health Sec, Wes Streeting, needs to outlaw these pretenders, (these non-GPs), immediately. Have Drs Ball and Salazar contacted their MPs and Wes Streeting too; before the Parliament has Summer recess would be excellent; and stress the importance and urgency by phone call, meeting and email. ‘Well done’ if they act without delay. Non-GPs may be good in their sphere, but not as GP programme directors and supervisors, absolutely not.
Who is doing this appointing?
Why are we not using the pool of LCARM GP’S with vast experience here-it seems the hoops have become so complex they cannot be jumped through by busy GP’s-or in the first year of retirement-‘too senior to teach?’
There has been an insidious negative shift in standards across the board with non doctors jointly sharing educational meetings with qualified doctors noting some positive benefits as would be expected from MDT working . However, the lack of specific doctor only education is resulting imo, in a gradual reduction in standards . This is illustrated, however uncomfortable to accept , by diabetes meetings where some some
non medical staff on occasion lead meetings and despite dealing with only one illness however broad out of the many pathologies seen in primary care , are simply unable to answer technical questions where they fall outside of a standard simple guideline or anecdotal experience within these single illness clinics. The standard is altogether different when these meetings are led by actual medical specialists and hence this trend needs some rationalisation.