Doctors to be assessed on communication skills
Newly qualified doctors will now be assessed on their ability to communicate with patients as well as their clinical skills under a new programme beginning this week.
For the first time all junior doctors starting their first year of medical school will have to show their ability to carry out patient consultations, to work in a team and understand patient safety, as part of an overhaul of postgraduate training.
Nearly 5,000 graduates starting the foundation programme will be assessed under the new criteria, with assessment based on competence, rather than time served.
Deputy chief medical officer Bill Kirkup said the programme, which replaces the existing pre-registration house office year and first year of senior house office (SHO) training, would improve “patient safety as well as medical careers”.
Health minister Lord Warner also welcomed the move, saying it was the beginning of a wide-ranging change in medical training “driven by the needs of patients and the NHS”.
“As healthcare changes, the foundation programme will ensure that doctors going through the system have a good solid base from which to progress in the modern NHS which puts patients at the centre,” he said.
But the British Medical Association (BMA) warned that the new system should be implemented carefully or there could be an increase in the shortage of training posts.
Simon Eccles, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said the organisation welcomed the change to base progression on ability and not time spent training. But he said the transition to the new system had not been well planned.
“Many junior doctors are finding themselves without jobs to go to,” Mr Eccles said, adding: “It is vital that carefully thought-out solutions are put in place over the coming years or workforce problems will worsen.”
The programme will run for two years. In the second year there will be opportunities for experience in areas such as academic medicine, primary care and specialities where there are staff shortages. A dedicated educational supervisor, responsible for providing support, will be assigned to each foundation doctor.
“By making the continuous development of skills and knowledge central to training, and by making explicit the standards of competence that doctors reach before they progress, the foundation programme will improve patient safety as well as medical careers,” Mr Kirkup said.
Training will be organised and delivered by postgraduate deaneries through new foundation schools, which will bring together medical schools, trusts and other organisations, such as hospices, to provide a range of different settings.
