After appointment, you will be asked to complete a preference questionnaire by the Postgraduate School of Primary Care (PSPC). The results are forwarded to the training programme to help to inform allocations to posts. In addition each successful candidate will be offered an individual telephone appointment with a training programme director (TPD) to discuss your educational needs. If you have any preferences for your 3 year training programme, we do our best to take these into account.
We will be asking you to preference either the Carlisle or Whitehaven teaching base around which to select your GP and hospital posts. This is to help you form a cohesive group with your peers which enhances learning and provides support. It also helps you to settle in the area, avoiding excessive travel where possible. In order to maximize flexibility and give access to the widest range of opportunities across the whole area you can alternatively opt to preference a "mix" of posts. If specific types of opportunity are more important to you and you are happy to travel to them, then this is the one for you.
When allocating teaching bases, training practices and hospital rotations we try to ensure these allocations reflect your personal choices and your educational needs, matching these as best we can with those posts and placements which are available to the training programme. We aim to do this as fairly as possible, balancing the needs of everyone in the year group and existing trainees. We also have an obligation to ensure our hospital posts are evenly filled to ensure continuity in service provision for patients and that our allocations also take into account the needs, experience and availability of our trainers, ensuring they gain appropriate educational experience. Whilst every effort is made to meet your needs and preferences, some compromises may be needed. It is the task of the Lead TPD to decide how to do this fairly and the LTPD's decision is final. We are proud of the high level of satisfaction amongst existing and previous GP Trainees with this approach.
All jobs run consecutively and the changeover dates follow dates set by the hospital trusts for hospital posts. Unfortunately this means you may not change your training programme rotation unless there are extenuating circumstances which have developed since commencing on the programme.
As changes occur within trusts and GP practices, there may be occasions during the course of your training when we need to alter your programme. In the event of this happening we will ensure that your training meets the requirements of the curriculum and certification and will liaise with you with as much flexibility as is available to us.