RCoA submission to NHSE Medial Training Review call for evidence
The Royal College of Anaesthetists has submitted evidence to NHS England’s (NHSE) Medical Training Review. The review is a national initiative overseen by NHSE’s National Medical Director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis and the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty.
As the professional body responsible for safeguarding standards in anaesthesia, we encourage, promote and support the training of anaesthetists. We are committed to improving education and training for our members and have been proactively engaging with the review.
Our anaesthetists in training and SAS Council Members, alongside colleagues from the Association of Anaesthetists, met with the review team earlier this year to outline our evidence on how medical training needs to improve. Our submission builds on that discussion and includes evidence we have drawn from our members.
Overall, our submission recognises the strengths of the current anaesthesia training programme but highlights where reform is urgently needed to improve the training experience, ensure all doctors can achieve their career development goals and meet the needs of patients.
Our evidence submission includes calls for:
- Addressing progression bottlenecks and training post availability
There is an urgent need for a viable plan to train and recruit more anaesthetists. The current shortage of 1,900 anaesthetists across the UK – 15% lower than what is needed – is a limiting factor in addressing patient waiting lists. The focus should be on ensuring that medical training posts are aligned with actual training capacity and on strengthening training capacity in areas it is currently lacking.
- Protecting and enhancing educator capacity
Educator capacity is an increasing concern across the UK. The time allocated for training within Supporting Professional Activities (SPA) has been progressively eroded. As a result, the ability of consultants to act as effective trainers is being compromised. Trust-allocated SPA time for educational roles should be formally recognised and consistently applied across all regions.
- Increasing flexibility and improving doctors’ experiences
All doctors, regardless of job title, should be supported to progress in their careers. Our submission includes outputs from our work to increase flexibility and recognition of time spent outside formal training programmes, as well as our best practice guidance for educational support for SAS, Locally Employed and MTI doctors.
Our members are clear that recruitment into training is not perceived as supportive. Our report on exploring improvements to the national recruitment process sets out what needs to change to ensure a more person-centred approach.
- Expanding training into community settings to integrate perioperative care
The RCoA hosts the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) which advocates for the multidisciplinary care of patients across the entire patient care experience, from the moment care is considered to full recovery and includes shared decision making and early discharge planning into the community.