Scarlett McNally: Fixing training for postgraduate doctors

A recent general meeting of the Royal College of Anaesthetists voted to demand better postgraduate training for doctors.1 Rotational training for doctors can have huge negative effects on morale, patient care, educational opportunities, and home life.1Improving the quality and availability of postgraduate training posts for doctors is key to having a viable NHS and a healthy population. Four months on from the publication of the NHS workforce plan,2 we should admit that it overlooked training doctors. We need doctors who can uniquely manage complexity and plan personalised care—crucially, understanding when to avoid excess healthcare and overmedicalisation.Postgraduate training for doctors is broken, and they don’t feel valued. Doctors in postgraduate training spend much of their time on administrative tasks rather than on learning and gaining skills. Most rotas have gaps, and there’s a vicious cycle of antisocial hours, commuting, overwork, administrative overload, and burnout. Postgraduate training posts have increased by only…
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