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GP trainees to be interviewed on how well their values align with the NHS

Prospective GPs and medical students will now be interviewed on how well their values and behaviour ‘align’ with the values of the NHS, Health Education England has announced.

The new Values Based Recruitment strategy will apply to all students and trainees to ensure that recruits aren’t just suitably qualified, but can work effectively in teams and deliver ‘excellent patient care and experience’.

HEE, which has been mandated to get 3,250 additional GPs in training by 2016, says the scheme is part of an increasing focus on values in the wake of the problems at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, and will ensure the NHS isn’t just recruiting people with ‘the right skills and in the right numbers’.

A spokesperson said: ‘We may not be able to predict exactly how we will train our future workforce or what the NHS will look like in 2029, however one thing we do know is that the values we require from people in the NHS in order to be able to care for patients will remain the same.’

This comes at a time when HEE is failing to recruit enough GP trainees, with 40% of posts unfilled in some areas.

Pulse revealed yesterday that GPC would be petitioning HEE to do more to provide equitable funding and exposure to general practice during undergraduate medical education.