Area Programme Director

Dr Andrew Carson

Area Administrator

Debbie Dolphin / Carol Harper

Contact: andrewcarson@nhs.net

The South Birmingham Scheme evolved over many years and has been a 'mixed' scheme for a decade, introducing SHOs to the concepts of general practice, while providing support and an educational base for SHOs and registrars together. We are a "learner-led"; organised into six groups, facilitated by one of the course organisers. We also meet as the larger group to make use of visiting experts.

We meet at the Selly Oak Postgraduate Centre for at least 30 Thursday afternoons a year. We also go on a two day residential in September, and an 'away day' in the spring.

All participants are encouraged to attend courses (family planning, minor surgery, child health surveillance etc) during the scheme.

The North Birmingham General Practice Vocational Training Scheme (VTS) is part of the West Midlands Postgraduate School of General Practice. We are part of the West Midlands Deanery, which is under the remit of the Strategic Health Authority.

Traditionally training GP's would meet at a half day release course. This usually occurs at the Partnership Learning Centre, Good Hope Hospital on Thursday afternoons at 2pm. The scheme currently has two committed course organiser Dr Sabena Jameel and Dr Vinit Kundra. The half day release sessions are set to continue and are highly valued by trainees. They may evolve in the future into "Learning Sets" with the aim of enabling more self directed learning and agenda setting

East Birmingham and Solihull offers training in an area that offers a population mix ranging from deprivation in parts of the city, to extreme affluence in the rural suburbs of Solihull. There is a broad spread of ethnicity represented within the patient population. The hospital training is in the main carried out by Heart of England NHS Trust, a group of highly rated national teaching hospitals based in Solihull, Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield.
 
The East Birmingham and Solihull GP Programme is run by Dr Ryan Prince and Dr Rodger Charlton who both have higher qualifications in Medical Education and a history of academic practice and publication. It is a scheme based on sound educational principles that aims to pragmatically approach the GP curriculum in a stepwise approach, resulting in good MRCGP pass rates and high satisfaction rates amongst trainees.  The venue is Knowle and Dorridge Cricket Club, where hospitality and lunch is kindly provided by an educational grant from the local private hospital. Using the guidance from latest educational Cochrane reviews to plan the programme, we realise there is still a great role for specialists teaching us carefully selected GP orientated topics (e.g.the management of heart failure in primary care), and most weeks we enjoy a visit for the first hour from a locally renowned expert to update us,  encompassing a reflective discussion on what we will take away with us to change our practice for the better. We invite our local GPs and trainers  to join us for these interactive talks providing good networking opportunities for facilitating future local employment. The local GPs leave us for the second part of the afternoon where we cover more of the GP curriculum in a self directed manner in smaller "learning sets". We run at least one annual overnight fully funded course, usually aimed at AKT or CSA preparation.

A link will appear here shortly.

This is a new scheme based round the Sandwell and West Birmingham area. There are a wide variety of hospital jobs offered at City and Sandwell, including specialties such as ENT, dermatology and ophthalmology, as well as medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, psychiatry, accident and emergency and geriatrics. We offer a wide variety of teaching combining half day release with some modular courses throughout the three years. The emphasis is on learning through enjoyment and active participation. There is a good system of pastoral care and there are also regular social events