Child health training and the College

Although it is not in the College’s gift to remove approval from training programmes, we do share the concerns expressed by Dr Sharvill in his letter.¹ The College is aware that general practice training is not long enough and that it is difficult to fit all of the necessary training experiences and placements into a 3-year envelope. The time spent in general practice has been extended from 12 to 18 months, which provides trainees with a greater opportunity to experience a full range of different clinical specialisms within the general practice context. We also regularly review our curriculum, and have enhanced child health in the MRCGP assessments.

In addition, we have published a joint position statement with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health entitled Learning Together to Improve Child Health, which advocates the importance of interprofessional training.² We are also undertaking a joint survey of the number of training placements in paediatrics to better understand the scale of the problem and how it might best be addressed.

This is an issue of great importance to the College and we want to ensure that all GP trainees have access to the paediatric and child health training and experience that they need to be both competent and confident in this important area.