Dear all,

We have held off getting in touch as there has been a blizzard of information coming from a lot of sources but it seems timely to drop you all a line.

Firstly, and as has been said by others, thank you for all that you are doing to keep the NHS ship afloat. There is already massive disruption to normal services and teaching and that is unfortunate but feels unavoidable. At present, as you will know, all protected and formal teaching time has been suspended and also rotations are not taking place. We suspect many hospital based trainees may be redeployed to maintain support for an expected influx of potentially unwell patients very soon. 

In GP, service delivery takes precedence and we are awaiting news from HEEME about WPBA and what will be needed for the next 4 months. I anticipate that much, if not all, of this will be temporarily suspended but we will all be advised in due course. 

At present GP based trainees are still able to book shifts in Urgent and Unscheduled Care at NEMs and I would encourage you to still come to those sessions if your practice can spare you. It is interesting and different and is definitely a way to ‘do your bit’ to support the service that primary care delivers to patients in the Nottingham area at a time of great need. Obviously hours done are part of your contracted 40 hour week and any time taken back needs to be negotiated with your host practice. 

In the absence of any other advice currently, it would seem sensible to try and maintain your PDP and Learning Log entries as this does provide evidence of your learning even if formal teaching is suspended. You should still be supervised when working and getting debriefs (even if done remotely) while working in a GP setting. As with WPBA, guidance on ES reviews and the next round of ARCP panels is awaited from HEEME. 

I would encourage you all to keep in touch with your fellow trainees and Educational Supervisors (virtually!) at what is for us all is a difficult and stressful time. If anyone does have any questions or concerns please get in touch with me, Karen or your usual PD (we have had a number of contracts about health and the workplace particularly). A big part of our role has always been and remains ‘pastoral support’ and we are happy to continue this at the current difficult time. 

Please everyone take care and stay safe and we will hopefully see you all again soon later this year. 

Best wishes, 

Phil​, Ani, Avi, Chris, Kathryn, Karen and Lisa.