The Scheme

More time in General Practice

We strongly believe that the place to learn about General Practice is in General Practice.  That is why we are very pleased to be the first General Practice Training Scheme in the Eastern Region to be able to offer a 3 year training programme, half of which is spent in general practice rather than the usual 12 months.  The other half of the scheme is spent in three different Senior House Officer posts in the West Suffolk Hospital.

The normal rotation starts with six months in general practice.  During this time the registrar is orientated to the essence of general practice and can start to get some of the hurdles of Summative Assessment out of the way.

Rotations involve a mixture of General Medicine/Medicine of the Elderly, Accident & Emergency, Obstetrics & Gynaecology (which includes sessions in GU Medicine), and Paediatrics. A post in Adult Psychiatry is often available to interested applicants. Also there may occasionally be a training practice that has a vacancy for either 6 or 12 months. These posts are advertised, if available, on the Eastern Deanery website (www.easterngp.co.uk).

A highly popular job in Palliative Care at the St. Nicholas Hospice, on the West Suffolk Hospital site, is at present under review, but we have hopes that this will continue.

With this introductory time in general practice, the trainee GP is well placed to turn their hospital SHO jobs into a learning experience, rather than just work.

In the last 12 months the registrar will return to a general practice which will normally be a different one from the one they started in, thus widening their experience.

Accommodation

Single or married accommodation may be available for which a charge will be made in accordance with the Terms & Conditions.  On-call rooms are provided for nights on duty only.  At all time, when on-call, doctors are required to be resident within the hospital grounds.  Accommodation is not provided in General Practice.

Protection of Children

if you are going to work with children you are required to disclose any record of convictions, bind-over orders  or cautions against you as an appendix to your application.