Broadmead Medical Centre is an accredited GP Training practice. All trainees that are allocated to Broadmead are working towards a chosen medical specialism.

The types of trainee or junior doctor that you, as a registered patient, may come into contact with are as follows:

A GP Registrar or GP Trainee is a qualified Doctor who will become a GP through a period of training in hospital and in General Practice. The GP training takes place over a 3 year period. Many of our GP Registrars spend longer in training as they often work on a part-time basis. The GP registrar is therefore either in their first, second or third year of training. In years one and two they will spend 4 months in general practice. In their 3rd and final year they are usually in the practice for 12 months but this may be extended if they are in a part-time training post. As with all trainees, they are supervised by senior GPs or trainers.

Prior to becoming a Registrar, and having already obtained a medical degree, trainees spend 2 years in Foundation Training. During the second year of foundation training, 4 months is spent in general practice. F2 Doctors remain under clinical supervision (as do all Doctors in training) but take on increasing responsibility for patient care. They have a much longer appointment time allocated as they need more time than a qualified GP to manage each individual case. At the end of their training, F2 Doctors will have begun to demonstrate the skill requirements that are essential for hospital or general practice training.

Medical Students: Before you become a UK Doctor, you first have to obtain degrees in medicine and surgery from a medical school. Medical school training varies between 4 to 6 years depending on whether the student is entering training as a postgraduate trainee. Medical students spend occasional ‘taster’ days at Broadmead. They see occasional patients under supervision of their trainer and they undertake an in depth family history programme. After graduation, the newly qualified doctors enter the 2-year Foundation Programme.

There are many positive aspects of being registered with an Accredited Training Practice - trying to home grow our own future GPs; keeping the clinicians up to date; and ensuring that the practice maintains high standards by its regular accreditation as a training practice. However, there can be downsides in that patients can be disappointed when their ‘usual’ GP leaves at the end of their allocated time with the practice and it may appear that the practice has a significant changeover of clinicians. As stated above doctors in training also have an increased consultation time and it may appear that they are therefore more accommodating than the regular GPs. However, as their time at the surgery progresses it is anticipated that they will be working at the capacity of a fully qualified GP in their last two months.

Broadmead Medical Centre is proud of the fact that we are training Doctors and GPs for the future and we would like to take this opportunity to thank our patients for supporting the Doctor training programmes.