About us:

The Stevenage (Lister) & North Herts

General Practice Specialty Training Programme

Introduction

We are a dynamic, friendly scheme based in North Hertfordshire that has been teaching and evolving since 1990.                                                                      

The scheme used to have 4 trainees per year, but over the last few years we have expanded to 18 trainees a year. We have worked hard to keep a close supportive atmosphere within the scheme despite this expansion.

We, the 2 programme directors, were GP trainees here ourselves so have been part of the scheme for many years and are committed to running a relevant and educationally diverse, high quality GP training programme.

The scheme offers a half day release course for all years on a Wednesday afternoon at the Lister Education Centre. The programme is devised in response to the RCGP curriculum, the learning needs of the trainees and also aims to equip the trainees for forthcoming exams.

We also run a 2 day residential course at Madingley Hall, Cambridgeshire early in the academic year. This is a fun way for trainees to get to know each other and meet the trainers.The trainees choose the content of this short course and there are opportunities for those that are interested in developing their teaching skills.

A typical rotation might comprise of:

We try to ensure that the GP trainee has experience in a minimum of 2 practices. Our training practices vary from urban through market town to semi-rural and span from Stevenage northwards to Ashwell.

We are excited about the variety of hospital specialities we can offer on this scheme. We have all the traditional specialties but also have hospital posts in ENT, ophthalmology, palliative care and more. Rotations are individually selected to fit the educational needs and previous experience of each doctor. We have great relationships with the consultants in the hospital and therefore even when the trainees are in GP it is possible to arrange clinics in the hospital if further learning is required. All ST3s have the opportunity to attend dermatology clinics. All the specialties are also listed on this website.

The scheme has developed a number of innovative posts. These enable the trainee to do half a week in GP as well as having a taster in a number of different specialties. We have 5 different innovative posts which are all listed on the website. Some of the taster sessions include dermatology, community paediatrics, rheumatology, family planning and sexual health.

All departments allow protected teaching time to attend the half day release.

Over the last 3 years we have run a consultation skills programme as part of the programme. This is planned so that it is relevant for each year group and the trainers come to the sessions to provide the teaching. It has been highly evaluated by the trainees and they feel that by starting this training early it equips and prepares them for the CSA part of the MRCGP.

We have a high pass rate for the MRCGP exam on the scheme, both AKT and CSA. When trainees on occasion have found the exams difficult, we ensure they have some bespoke teaching tailored to their individual needs.

Please dive into the website further to learn even more about us!

Dr Melanie Hodgson
Dr Emma Salik 
Programme Directors