The GP Academy

We read with interest the article on near peer teaching in general practice.¹ The University of Nottingham, like many other universities following the Wass report,² has used GP trainees in the teaching of our medical students. We have had excellent feedback from our students and will continue to do this. What we didn’t expect is the positive impact on the GP registrars themselves. We have all concentrated on the effects of near peer teaching on the undergraduate medical students, but at a time when there is a workforce crisis in primary care, we know that GP trainees and early-career GPs are leaving regions and the profession in general, and that we are struggling to meet the government targets for 5000 new GPs promised, these findings are of paramount importance.

Our early findings show, among other things, increased resilience, increased understanding of their own training, learning styles, and educational needs, increased desire to work as a GP, increased interest in medical education as part of their portfolio career, increased interest in supervising medical students in practice once qualified, and an increased desire to stay locally in the region because of the positive career links and longitudinal support the trainees have identified.

Because of our findings, we have now launched ‘The GP Academy’ at the University of Nottingham, using medical education to train and retain GPs in the region. Having made close links with Health Education England who have supported the study leave, local GP training programmes who have hosted us, the LMC and workforce teams who have supported the project financially, and now NHS England, who from April 2019 have agreed to support The GP Academy with significant central NHS funding to roll it out across the region.

Our hope is that once the success is proven here, we will then be able to lead The GP Academy roll-out nationally, for the benefit of our GP trainees, early-career GPs, and the overall primary care workforce.

• © British Journal of General Practice 2019