New blueprint for NHS education and training

HALF of all trainee doctors should choose to become GPs and better feedback is needed on medical education, according to a new NHS training blueprint.

More doctors should also be encouraged into emergency medicine to tackle “historical shortages” in the field, and a greater emphasis must be placed on dementia training for NHS staff.

These are just some of the priorities outlined in the report Delivering high quality, effective, compassionate care: Developing the right people with the right skills and the right values. A mandate from the Government to Health Education England. The 37-page document runs from now until March 2015.

Health Education England (HEE) is the new organisation in charge of education, training and workforce development with a budget of £5billion. It is the first time a single body has had responsibility for all three areas.

HEE says its objective is to “ensure that the right number of staff with the right values are being trained and developed and that they have the right competence, capability and performance to meet future needs.” The report adds that “the terrible events” at Mid-Staffordshire Foundation Trust, as detailed in the Francis Report, highlight the need to “put the delivery of high quality compassionate care at the heart of our NHS.”

The report also details plans for improvement to GP training including compulsory work-based training modules in child health, and mental health, including dementia. It goes on to state that training should include “understanding of working in multi-disciplinary teams to deliver good integrated care.” And while they would like these changes to be in place by autumn 2014, they accept that this would likely take longer as “delivery is dependant on wider agreement outside of HEE which will affect the time scales.”

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Delivering high quality, effective, compassionate care: Developing the right people with the right skills and the right values. A mandate from the Government to Health Education England