GP Foundation

Details

I hope that you have arrived at this page in response to my email to foundation students or because you are genuinely interested in a career in General Practice.

For the purposes of this page I will assume that you are in a foundation scheme and that you are busier than at any other time in your life. Six four month modules will help you gain your foundation competencies and more importantly gain first hand experience in various specialities. Try and do the module in general practice in your F2 year, it will be useful in the application process.

Inevitably you will not be able to explore all the specialities that interest you in this short period. I would urge you to find somebody with whom to discuss any other areas of interest that you have so that you can get an idea about them.

Your postgraduate centre will be able to help you when thinking about careers and will certainly put on some career events for you. Try to attend them and remember that you need two career choices; your “first choice” career option and a “backup” option.

Applications for general practice are invited in November for an August start the following year. See the recruitment calendar, dates and deadlines for August 2012 intake.

There are a number of steps –

Stage 1. Determination of eligibility

1. See requirements

Stage 2. Machine marked test

1. There are two papers, 110 minutes on “professional dilemmas” and 75 minutes on “professional problem solving”
2. It is a central multiple choice examination at a local centre – examples.
3. The highest scorers are invited for interview

Stage 3. Assessment centres (February)

1. Patient Simulation Exercise
   This will involve a a situation which you should be able to deal with as a doctor with at least 18 months postgraduate experience. It will not involve a physical examination and clinical expertise is not specifically assessed. The exercise will involve simulators and 3 different situations - a consultation with a patient; a consultation with a relative or carer and a consultation with a non medical colleague.
2. Written Exercise
   You will have to complete an exercise in which there are no absolutely correct answers. Again we expect you to demonstrate your abilities against the competency areas identified in the Person Specification and this should be your reference. The written exercise will usually require some prioritisation or ranking of issues and a justification of your responses.
3. Examples available

Posts offered in March.

More information about this process is available form the GP national recruitment website.

In Merseyside there were 1.6 people for every place invited to assessment centres so the odds are good that you will be offered a post.

You have trained in Merseyside, made friends and settled. The hospital trusts in the area are of a high standard. Stay in Merseyside and join us in your chosen career in general practice.

Dr. Peter Arthur
GP Careers advisor