“Bristol is a great place to train as a GP. I’ve had the opportunity to work in semi-rural and inner city practices, seeing a diverse range of patients. There are high quality weekly teaching sessions and the support surrounding the AKT and CSA exams is fantastic. The Bristol team are well organised and structured my placements so I could take shared parental leave.
I was fortunate enough to do a Leadership and Education one year extension of training. This has given me the opportunity to develop links with local universities, CCGs and Training Hubs. I have been able to develop my own projects and interests, encouraging and supporting all healthcare professionals to work in primary care.”
“I can’t recommend Bristol highly enough as a place for GP training. The programme is so well run with incredibly helpful staff who have supported me through every step of training and kept me on track! I have had an excellent range of hospital placements in different parts of Bristol and North Somerset, which have set me up brilliantly for my future GP career. Placements are chosen carefully to give all trainees exposure to as many areas of primary care medicine as possible. My supervisors and trainers have always been extremely encouraging and dynamic, and I have been so impressed at the support for trainees taking time out of programme and working less than full time. I have had the opportunity to take part in a taster programme working in South Africa through the deanery, which was a really valuable experience, and the links between Africa Health Placements and Severn Deanery make working abroad highly accessible. For my ST3 year I was encouraged to undertake a Quality Improvement and Leadership Fellowship. This has been an incredible opportunity to undertake a funded postgraduate certificate in healthcare leadership, and also gain experience in a vast range of areas such as healthcare policy, medical education and quality improvement. The support of all staff at the Bristol GP training school have made these opportunities possible for me. I moved to Bristol after medical school and foundation years in London, and am loving Bristol life – it’s the best move I ever made!”
“I have had a fantastic training experience as a Bristol Academic GP trainee. The GP programme team has been incredibly flexible in helping to ensure I could get the most out of my training. I was encouraged and enabled to attend all additional training opportunities. I was well supported in the challenge of balancing my research and clinical time, and when I needed to work less than full time to cover childcare commitments this was arranged without difficulty. My development as a clinician and researcher has been well supported – and I now feel well placed to continue in a career balancing clinical and academic general practice.”
“I’ve really enjoyed a move to Bristol for GP training – really great place to live and start a family, easy to get out to Wales and the South West and the training program has been really good too. Interesting range of placement in different settings including a hospice placement, ENT and community psychiatry with really well supported GP placements both in ST1 and ST3. The Bristol training program is also well organised, flexible and gives opportunities to explore interests beyond clinical placements – I’ve enjoyed a few months of Shared Parental Leave, extending my training with a Scholarship developing some GP focused simulation and plenty of different opportunities for developing my teaching skills.”
“My experience of GP training in Bristol has been fantastic! Both of my training GP practices and all of my hospital placements have provided extensive learning opportunities and I’ve felt well supported all the way along. Teaching has been consistently good quality and also provides support and comradery with peers. The GP school have been supportive and flexible in numerous ways including me doing an Out of Programme Experience (OOPE) year between ST2 and ST3 which involved further hospital experience and time out travelling. I also was able to go part time in my ST3 to enable me to do another job role outside of medicine which was helped, not hindered, by the GP school. Aside from all that, Bristol is also a wonderful place to be, both as a city in itself, but also because it provides a launchpad for exploring Wales and the Southwest. I would highly recommend coming here for GP training, I’m glad I did.”
“For me the key features of training in Bristol has been how incredibly supportive and flexible the team are. I applied to Bristol as I wanted to relocate from the Midlands so requested a deferral which was granted. I was still kept in the loop of what was happening with the GP trainees who started at the usual time which was really nice. A relocation during the pandemic made things incredibly complicated but the support I received was excellent and again the willingness to work with me to come up with potential solutions such as LTFT, working from home, OOP was incredibly impressive. It allowed me to continue my training even when it seemed likely I might have to withdraw from the programme. The teaching has had to switch to remote due to necessity but it is always well organised and allows us an opportunity to touch base with the other trainees. Most importantly the admin support has been exceptional. The team are constantly taking care of us and are an excellent source of information and guidance.”