Overall, a standard 3-year programme will have 24 months in General Practice and 12 months in hospital posts. These figures may be slightly different for LTFT doctors in training depending upon logistics and timing.
Besides standard practice attachments, General Practice posts include Standard Integrated Training Posts (ITP) which involves spending half of each week in practice and half working in a hospital specialty. Most DIT will have a Standard ITP Post as part of their overall programme.
Some doctors in GP training need extensions to their training programmes for educational reasons, in which case the extra posts will generally be in standard General Practice posts, most commonly at the end of their programme. Doctors in GP training who work less than full time (LTFT) will obviously have a longer time within training but this will the same amount of time overall.
A typical training programme will be as follows:
Year 1 (ST1)
This will comprise of:
6 months in General Practice/ITP followed by 6 months in a hospital post or
6 months in a hospital post followed by 6 months in General Practice/ITP
Year 2 (ST2)
6 months in General Practice/ITP followed by 6 months in a hospital post or
6 months in a hospital post followed by 6 months in General Practice/ITP
Year 3 (ST3)
This will comprise of: Either a 6 month ITP post followed by 6 months in General Practice or
6 months in General Practice followed by 6 months in an ITP post or 12 months General Practice
We individualise all training programmes. Unlike other programmes across the country who have set 3-year programmes, we run ours flexibly.
We hope you will understand there are limits to the flexibility and choice we can offer however. There is great complexity involved in allocating over 300 GP doctors in training to a 3 year programme..
Your preferences are not the only factor involved – for example, we must ensure all training plans meet CCT requirements, that part-time working and leave of absence are catered for, available posts are filled, and NHS service needs are honored. Nevertheless, we do try our best.
The programme covers a large area extending from Berwick upon Tweed in the north to Weardale in the south and from the north east coast to Haydon Bridge in the west.
Given this, and the factors outlined above, it is inevitable that travelling distances necessitated by individuals’ training programmes will vary.
Allocation Process:
Rotations are initially developed to ensure a broad coverage, relevant to GP and the allocations process takes note of your preferences, when deciding your individual programme.
We then ensure, as far as is possible, a fair distribution of doctors in GP training across the Trusts. In times of incomplete fill of posts, this is important for patient safety and to ensure that departments can make other plans to meet their needs. At times of complete fill of posts , which is our current fortunate position, this means we have no other posts available.
We are not able to change your training placements unless there are extenuating circumstances. These should have been documented upon your preference form at submission.
To ensure that the needs of the NHS are met we may need to alter your programme. In the unlikely event of this happening we will ensure that your training meets the requirements of the curriculum and Certification.
Careful consideration has been taken when allocating your posts. We have looked at your specific requests and endeavoured to offer some of your highest preferences.
This is in conjunction with the overall balance of posts required for CCT and workforce coverage. All postgraduate doctors applying for GP training were allocated a random number and the allocations proceeded on that basis to ensure we are as fair as we can be across the whole intake.
Please note that a significant proportion of doctors in training have a preference in Dermatology and GUM. Unfortunately as we have a very small numbers of such posts it will mean disappointment to many of you