Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust has been placed as one of the top five hospital trusts in England in the annual General Medial Council training survey for several educational domains by Foundation year 1 doctors.
Dr Julian Chilvers and Dr Saket Singhal, Postgraduate Clinical Tutors at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust are very pleased with the trust’s ranking and are glad that the hard work of members of the education team and supervisors are being noticed.
“For SWBH to come in the top five trusts in England in this year’s GMC trainee survey for the categories of F1 induction, educational and clinical supervision has been recognised by both consultants and the exec board alike as a great achievement,” said Julian.
“It demonstrates the commitment and hard work that the educational and clinical supervisors provide to ensure the FY1 doctors feel supported and receive good training.”
The General Medical Council is an independent organisation that works towards ensuring the safety of patients and improving the standard of medical training across the United Kingdom. They oversee all training and medical education and decide whether doctors are qualified to work in the UK.
They have a strict set of standards that all doctors working within the country have to adhere to throughout their careers, and if they do not, they will take serious action if a patient’s safety is put at risk.
Julian added: “The Education team regularly review and act on feedback from trainees to try and ensure a productive and educationally valuable experience for all specialties and levels.
“A recent development has been to set up a system to ensure all clinical and educational supervisors undergo an annual educational appraisal highlighting areas of their educational work they do well and any areas for development.”
From this feedback, Julian, Saket and their team at Sandwell and West Birmingham have found that the doctors who have trained in the trust were generally greatly satisfied with the training they received.
All feedback comments are anonymous, and one of doctors who had been through the training wrote; “This has been an excellent placement and is one I would recommend to every foundation year trainee to undertake as part of their program.
“The senior cover and advice is second to none and there are plenty of opportunities to see patients, learn and perform procedures, developing the skills and competencies required for the foundation curriculum.”