Firm foundation for senior house officers: A firm foundation for general practice

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7459.230-c

BMJ 2004;329:230 (24 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7459.230-c

Letter

Firm foundation for senior house officers

A firm foundation for general practice

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Gallen and Peile discuss the initiative to modernisemedical careers, a concept that could improve the recruitmentand retention crisis in primary care by exposing young doctorsto general practice.¹ This component may, however, flounderowing to a lack of support from deaneries, primary care trusts,and workforce development confederations.

The development of educational supervisors' and associate trainers'roles needs to be encouraged so that doctors in foundation year2 can have an appropriate and well supported experience in primarycare that can enable attainment and proper assessment of thefoundation competencies.

Although training and non-training practices are enthusiastic,workforce development confederations and deaneries are not committedto fund training programmes for educational supervisors andassociate trainers properly. For many practices, space and accommodationfor doctors in foundation year 2 are also issues that need tobe dealt with urgently.

Primary care trusts may not yet fully understand . . . [Full text of this article]

Robin Christie, general practitioner

Portmill Surgery, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG4 9TH robanmel@ntlworld.com