TY - JOUR T1 - General practice and the Foundation Programme JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 633 LP - 633 DO - 10.3399/bjgp11X601433 VL - 61 IS - 591 AU - David Bird Y1 - 2011/10/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/61/591/633.abstract N2 - The reform of postgraduate medical education and the inception of the Foundation Programme in 2005 saw the creation of new opportunities for junior doctors in the community setting. The target was to allow 55% of foundation trainees to have a placement in general practice. Five years on, in October 2010, Medical Education England (MEE) published Foundation for Excellence -An Evaluation of the Foundation Programme. This included data from the UK Foundation Programme Office report 2009 showing that we are far from meeting those targets. At the time of writing, only 16% of rotations included a community placement.2 How these figures can be improved and, in fact, whether there is value in doing so, is a key issue for debate.For many trainees, the shorter working hours and close supervision of general practice … ER -