Black Country

• Dudley
• Sandwell
• Walsall
• Wolverhampton

Each locality acts as an independent Training Programme based on the local teaching hospital trust, but all four areas work collaboratively to ensure a positive and enjoyable training experience for our trainees.

For more information please contact the programmes Team on the below email:

programmes.wm@hee.nhs.uk

Dudley Programme

The Dudley Training Programme for General Practice was founded in the mid-1970s as one of the first in the West Midlands by a forward-thinking local GP, Dr Derek Bloor. It is now one of the longest established in the country and regularly exports doctors to work in all parts of the UK. The Scheme has been built on the principles of excellence in education, flexibility and innovation.

The scheme has grown hugely over the years and we now have more than 60 trainees on the scheme working in over 20 training practices. In addition, we have 30+ training posts within the Dudley Group of Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Dudley & Walsall NHS Mental Health Trust which all have nominated clinical supervisors of consultant grade. We currently have over 60 GP trainees at all levels of training.

Our objectives are:

• To continue to provide high quality, learner-centred, training for those who have chosen General Practice as their career

• To help and support doctors in training to achieve success in the MRCGP examination

• To embed the principles of life-long learning into the doctors of the future

• To foster a lifelong, compassionate approach to patient care

• To equip our trainees with the necessary skills to maintain resilience

• To ensure Doctors trained on the scheme are fit for registration and licensing with the GMC and properly equipped to meet the requirements of revalidation

Sandwell Programme

Sandwell comprises of six towns of Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. It is a vibrant, diverse area with the challenges and joys that come from working in the inner city. Located centrally within the West Midlands, there is easy access to the great shopping and city life experience of Birmingham as well as the peaceful tranquility of the Shropshire and Malvern Hills.

We offer a wide variety of teaching methods; combining half day release with some modular courses throughout the three years as well as termly symposiums – for large group interactions.

Hospital posts are split across two sites: City Hospital and Sandwell hospital. There are a wide variety of hospital jobs offered, including specialties such as ENT, dermatology and ophthalmology, as well as medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, psychiatry, accident and emergency and geriatrics. Our teaching sessions take place at Sandwell hospital.

Sandwell encourages self-directed learning for the development of our future independent General Practitioners. This is facilitated by clusters sessions throughout the year. Clusters sessions allow small group interactions and better TPD to trainee ratios to get the best out of your three years.

We have an active junior doctor forum, so enthusiastic young doctors can get involved in the teaching as well as have their say on teaching and training matters and ensuring that social events are organised throughout the year. The emphasis is on learning through enjoyment and active participation.

Walsall Programme

Walsall VTS was created in September 2012 giving an opportunity to design and run a new training programme in the Black Country. We have recently had a favourable QA visit report and Walsall Programme was proud to win an RCGP Midlands faculty Quality Award for the scheme and its collaborative approach to learning. We aim to foster an enthusiastic and learner centred ethos in which trainees can develop.

We like to describe our scheme light-heartedly as trainee led and TPD interrupted/ facilitated. We have a good team of TPDs who work to our strengths well and work well with the trainers to produce self-directed learners who we hope will be motivated for General Practice in the future.

Walsall Programme has 46 trainers in 24 training practices. Our registrars are split into three clusters which were based on the final practice they would spend their ST3 year in. Within these clusters we have developed smaller teams or families of three or four registrars taken from each of the training years to encourage vertical learning and peer support.

Teaching sessions feature a mix of TPD facilitated and cluster facilitated learning sessions. TPDs run focus groups on topics or for CSA or AKT support. Innovations we have introduced are termly Movie VTS where we watch a film together with an idea of medical themes and questions that we should look out for and then after the film we break into clusters to discuss these. We have also experimented with ‘flipped learning’ and Balint group learning.

Each registrar hence has a named TPD lead (the lead TPD for their cluster) and point of contact although we like to adopt a friendly, informal approach and encourage the trainees to approach any of the TPDs with a query or difficulty.

We have an active Junior Doctors Forum and Trainee Committee which each meet at least once each term. The JDF is held by the registrars without the TPDs present so the group feels free to discuss any issues in private.

Wolverhampton Programme

The Wolverhampton GP Training Programme has been established for many years. We foster a supportive, interactive environment where trainees are encouraged to shape and develop their own learning. Our aim is to produce informed, well rounded doctors fit for the challenges of modern-day General Practice.

Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital is a large teaching hospital with an excellent reputation for education and the majority of the scheme’s hospital posts are based there. The Programme meets on Thursday afternoon at the hospital’s Medical Institute which boasts great IT facilities and a well-stocked library.

The current Wolverhampton Training Programme Directors are Dr Rob Grinsted, Dr Saum Agarwal & Dr Isabelle Mantella who together have a wide range of experience in teaching and training.

Attractions of living and working in the area

Despite its name, the Black Country includes many beautiful parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty, modern and attractive architecture and a vibrant and welcoming population. It takes its name from the broad seam of anthracite coal which originally ran deep underground in the region and fuelled the early industries which grew up here. 

Although not marked on any map, the region has a clear and independent identity with a rich and varied history dating back many centuries to the early Anglo-Saxon period. It is known for its unique dialect which is acknowledged as the closest surviving version of the language to Elizabethan English. The area was also the birth-place of the Industrial Revolution in the 17th Century and became the heart of British Industry from the Victorian period onwards.

The modern-day Black Country lies just to the west of the Birmingham conurbation and is comprised of the Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and
Wolverhampton localities with easy access to the central motorway system, air and rail services. Just to the west we also have the scenic ‘Green belt’ around the Midlands, including areas of South Staffordshire and Worcestershire, which make ideal places to commute from, with journey times varying from only a few minutes up to an hour.

There are many advantages of living and working in the Black Country. There is a rich sporting history with easy access to both Warwickshire and Worcestershire Cricket Clubs. For football fans, we have Wolverhampton Wanderers, West Bromwich Albion and Walsall FC. For more artistic pursuits there is the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre and the Oldbury Rep. For history buffs we have Dudley Castle and Zoo as well as the Black Country Living Museum. For those who enjoy shopping, the Merry Hill Centre is based in Dudley and the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton. Access to entertainments and facilities in central Birmingham is excellent with direct public transport services available from the centre of each Black Country locality.

Overall, it’s a great place to live and work.

ST1 – Brief information about the ST1 year

Two four month posts in Secondary care (FTE = Full time equivalent). Secondary care post in City/Sandwell Hospital (prospectively MMH) or with the Community Mental Health Trust or Public Health and one four month post in GP.

ST2 – Brief information about the ST2 year

One four month post in Hospital post and One Eight month post in a GP practice (FTE) with a possibility in an innovative attachment

ST3 – Brief information about the ST3 year

Attached to the training practice with your Educational Supervisor for twelve months. FTE

The teaching programme

There are three eight week VTS teaching terms per year commencing in September, January and May. These have an emphasis on the development of adult learning skills and are self- directed, with facilitation by the local team of training programme directors. Trainees are encouraged to set the agenda and run the training sessions themselves under the supervision of the TPDs. The method of learning is mostly small group format with an emphasis on multimedia learning techniques and the avoidance of the less effective ‘lecture’ method. Subject matter for the teaching sessions is guided by the RCGP Curriculum and is appropriate to the learning needs of the trainees.

In addition to the regular VTS terms, there is also an annual introductory course for all trainees, which is run in each locality in August/September, just prior to the commencement of term. This is a means of integrating the new trainees into the larger learning set and helping all trainees to transition into their new training year.

Cluster learning sessions are run on Thursday afternoons between each of the VTS terms. These are small learning sets of up to 15 trainees integrated across the three ST years and provide self-directed and self-facilitated learning in a practice-based setting, with each cluster being hosted in a local training practice (or sometimes the local postgraduate centre). Each cluster will have a nominated TPD supervisor who will attend occasionally to ensure that training is progressing and will act as an educational resource for their cluster.

Local support for MRCGP assessments

Clinical Skills Assessment: Each of the VTS localities provides a mock CSA course annually which is available to both ST2 and ST3 GP trainees. These are facilitated by the local TPDs under the supervision of an RCGP Examiner and are free of charge to VTS trainees. Role players from the communication skills department at Birmingham University act as ‘patients’ and the ‘examiners’ are local GP trainers who are briefed and monitored by the RCGP examiner.

Applied Knowledge Test: TPDs guide and facilitate the correct approach to the AKT in their locality via the VTS teaching sessions and by liaison with the local GP trainers at the regular trainers’ workshop. This ensures a consistent approach and the use of validated techniques. For those trainees who struggle with the AKT, the Professional Support Unit, based at the HEE offices in Birmingham, is available to provide help and advice as well as free dyslexia assessments for those who need them.

Workplace Based Assessment: WPBA is one of the 3 pillars of the MRCGP examination and is just as important as the AKT and CSA in terms of exam success. TPDs ensure that trainees are properly briefed and advised on how to approach these assessments via the VTS teaching sessions. In addition, all Black Country GP trainers are trained and validated to provide trainees with guidance and supervision in these assessments. TPDs ensure that the approach is consistent across all trainers in the locality and hold ‘calibration’ sessions at trainers’ workshops.

Academic and other opportunities in the Black Country

Funding is available for a number of academic opportunities in the BC-VTS localities which allow extensions to training of up to six months in order for trainees to study research and other techniques relevant to academic General Practice. These posts are linked to nearby university departments including Birmingham, Warwick and Keele and provide an opportunity for trainees to extend their academic skills and obtain academic postgraduate qualifications.

Some Black Country localities also have links to post-CCT salaried positions funded by the local CCGs intended to provide recently qualified GPs with specific skills in order to create ‘GPs with a Special Interest’.

Career prospects as a GP in the Black Country

The majority of trainees who train in the Black Country choose to remain living and working in the area and frequently become GP-trainers themselves. There are many high quality and innovative practices in the region and exciting career opportunities are plentiful in the area.

Black Country localities are at the forefront of innovation and improvement in the NHS and are actively involved in the new models of care being created, with Vanguard CCGs, GP Federations and Vertically Integrated Practices being features of the region. All of this means that the prospects for an exciting and stimulating career in Primary Care in the Black Country are excellent!