Meeting the challenge of medical student placement capacity in primary care by rewiring later-career GPs

Mona Aquilina; Pamela Martin

doi:10.3399/bjgp24X736173

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Thornton et al¹ have missed a potentially significant way to increase medical student placement capacity in primary care and simultaneously help with GP retention. The Later Career and Retired Members group (LCARM) of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has, for a long time, been encouraging the development of ‘portfolio careers’ for older GPs.² Diversifying the role of later-career GPs can enable them to remain clinically engaged while also developing and using other skills.

A promising way forward for maximising GP engagement with teaching would be for teams of teachers to be organised at Primary Care Network (PCN) level, with outreach to GPs considering reducing their clinical sessions. Often GPs have difficulty negotiating reduced hours with their practice, but the provision of funding to replace their clinical time will help. ‘Jobshare’ roles shared between later-career and younger GPs incorporating teaching can also be developed. The GPs within the teaching teams could be spread around all the practices within a PCN, working to consistently high standards and acting as ambassadors for teaching.

Rather than even thinking of adding mandatory teaching to the workforce that is already recognised as pressured and overstretched, medical schools could develop a previously untapped resource.

References

1.↵
1. Thornton S,
2. Alberti H,
3. Rosenthal J,
4. Protheroe J
(2023) Radical solutions are needed to meet the challenge of medical student placement capacity in primary care. Br J Gen Pract, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp23X735597.
2.↵
1. Aquilina M
(2021) Beyond the clinical coalface: utilising the transferable skills and expertise of former GPs within the NHS. Br J Gen Pract, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp21X714761.