FAQs

CRESH stands for Crawley and East Surrey Hospitals and refers to the training area that we cover.

GP STS is the General Practice Specialist Training Scheme.

CRESH primarily covers the East Surrey and Crawley CCG areas (see map), but we do blur with Epsom, Mid Sussex and Mole Valley as some of our training practices are located in or near to these CCGs.

The Crawley and East Surrey Hospitals General Practice Specialist Training Scheme guides junior doctors through the 3 year process of qualifying as GPs.

We provide Educational Supervision through our network of 50+ Educational Supervisors based in our 23 training Practices.

We provide a Term based GPSTS training schedule for all GP trainees, tailored to their year and curriculum needs, providing practical and theoretical training sessions as well as Residential courses and experiential external sessions at local GP practices

To qualify as a GP, a junior doctor needs to spend 2 years rotating around hospital and community posts, followed by final year in a training practice. Trainee GPs need to complete all the competencies set out by the Royal College of General Practitioners, as well as evidencing their understanding of the RCGP curriculum and passing 3 vital assessments;-

The Applied Knowledge Test – The AKT is a written, multiple choice exam. The AKT is usually completed in the 2nd year of training but can be sat in year two or year three.

The Clinical Skills Assessment – The CSA is a practical exam where trainees have to successfully diagnose 13 simulated patients each within 10 minute consultations. The CSA can only completed in the 3rd year of training.

Annual Review of Competency Progression – The ARCP has to be completed each year of training for the trainee to progress between the years and finally gain their Certificate of Completion of training, their CCT. Passing the CSA and AKT are fundamental to passing the final ARCP.

If you want to learn more, check our useful website links and training videos.

If a trainee fails to pass their AKT or CSA, they can retake them up to 4 times whilst in the training scheme.

If a trainee gets to the end of their training without passing and hasn’t hit the limit of 4 attempts, they may be granted an extension to training and would usually take the form of 6 month at reduced hours of 60% whole time equivalent.

If a trainee fails to pass after a period of extension, they are released from training, but this is very rare.

These refer to the years of training that the GP Specialist Trainees are currently in.

GPST1 – GP Specialist Trainee Year one – rotating through hospital posts

GPST2 – GP Specialist Trainee Year two – rotating through hospital posts

GPST3 – GP Specialist Trainee Year three – based at their Educational Supervisors Practice

GPST1 and GPST2 are very similar; over the course of both years a trainee has 6 hospital posts that change every 4 months, starting in August. The Hospital posts can be external at other trusts such as Surrey and Borders Psychiatry, Sussex Partnership Psychiatry or St Catherine’s Hospice.

Our GP School requires trainees to experience rotations in GP, Paediatrics and Psychiatry in their first two years, with the other placements being in other departments around the hospital such as Breast Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Endocrinology, Care of Elderly, Otolaryngology etc.

GPST3 is based at a training practice and will also involve completing 72 hours of Out Of Hours experience, as well as home visits and any external training course that their Educational Supervisor agrees to be suitable to the training.