St Serf’s Medical Practice is accredited as a Training Practice, coaching GP Trainees to become the GPs of the future. A GP Trainee is a fully qualified, experienced Doctor nearing the end of their training to practice as a GP.
Trainees are fully supervised throughout their time with us by our accredited trainers. In addition to the Trainees being assessed, the Practice is inspected to ensure that clinical care and teaching standards are high. Dr Robert Balfour and Dr Lynsey Frew are the Trainers/Supervisors but all doctors in the Practice have a significant role in training and development.
Being part of an accredited training programme means that the Practice benefits from the experience of a broader clinical group, as the Trainees have worked in alternative medical environments such as hospitals before joining us. Additionally, we can offer more appointments and choice of Doctors for patients.
If you are offered an appointment with a Trainee and are content with this, you will be asked to sign a consent form which will be added to your clinical record. If you are offered a telephone consultation with a trainee your verbal consent to proceed will be requested at the beginning of the consultation.
As part of the Doctor’s training, they must video some face-to-face consultations to assess their communication skills. Recordings are held securely within the Practice and only the Trainee and their Trainer can review these. After review, recordings are erased. Trainers may request some recordings from telephone consultations with a Trainee. These will be handled in line with Practice policy on storage and retrieval of recorded data, and in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations.
If you would rather that your consultation is not recorded, please tell us.