The GMC has today opened its annual survey on GP training and other postgraduate medical education.
Results from the survey, published later in the year, will help the GMC and medical education bodies ensure both trainees and trainers are supported.
Last year, the survey was answered by over 70,000 doctors and revealed that GP trainers are more at risk of burnout than the average for all specialties.
For the first time, the GMC included questions on experiences of discrimination, and the results showed that more than a quarter (27%) of trainees said they experience microaggressions, negative comments, or oppressive body language from colleagues.
According to the GMC, these findings have ‘helped to inform work encouraging workplace cultures where those who witness or experience discrimination are supported to speak up’.
The survey this year will continue to cover discrimination, as well as the quality of teaching and supervision, workloads and burnout, and time to deliver or receive training.
It will be open to doctors across the UK until Thursday 2 May.
The GMC recently called for ‘major’ improvements to medical education, including a ‘significant increase’ in supervisors and trainers.
The regulator highlighted that educators need ‘protected time’ as well as ‘resources and adequate support’.
Last year, as part of its long-term workforce plan, NHS England pledged to increase GP training places by 50% to 6,000 by 2031.
But GP leaders raised concerns about how trainers will handle this expansion, especially given the existing pressures and lack of retention measures.
A Pulse analysis revealed issues around the number and availability of GP trainers, as well as a lack of physical training space within practices to accommodate the expansion.
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Gmc and support in the same sentence?Sticks in the craw a little dosen’t it.