Reform of undergraduate medical teaching in the United Kingdom

Editor—I share Williams and Lau's misgivings about changes in medical education and agree that Tomorrow's Doctors is a depressingly bland document.¹

Like most non-teaching hospitals in the United Kingdom, this hospital has seen a huge increase in the number of medical students, who spend between two and eight weeks on our medical firm. The two week stints are too short for us to get to know the students well, and such a short time may coincide with the absence of a crucial team member. We have students from both Oxford and Leicester, and without stereotyping either medical school, the Oxford students seem to have more freedom to fill in their perceived gaps in knowledge and experience.

My grouse about the teaching is the paperwork it generates. After an hour long tutorial with a group of eight new students, I am expected to fill in a detailed questionnaire about the performance of each participant. I have no objection to the students giving feedback on my performance and invite this at the end of the session. But vice versa is madness. When we protest, we are told that it is a requirement of the General Medical Council.