Trainee Requirements in GP Practice
When in a GP training post, GP registrars are contracted to work 40 hours per week (full-time equivalent). The Thursday half-day release (ST3), ITP teaching (ST1-2), and clinical update (ST1-3) at the Royal Surrey County Hospital count as 8 hours of this learning time.
For the remaining 32 hours in GP practice, a minimum of 4 hours should be educational. For a split-ITP post, these 4 hours are divided as 2 hours of speciality education in the hospital post each week, and 2 hours of GP education per week.
The GP educational time is usually delivered in a 2 hour weekly tutorial with the Educational Supervisor, or a named individual in their absence, as well as additional time throughout the week attending practice meetings, doing workplace based assessments or portfolio work.
For the remaining 28 hours, the contract stipulates 1 hour of admin time per 3 hours of clinical time. (This should include appropriate time to debrief with the supervising GP). This should provide ample opportunity to complete all admin/record keeping safely as well as complete work base placed assessments and engage with the portfolio within working hours.
An example 4 days in practice (which excludes the Thursday teaching day), could include 3 days using the template below, and the 4th day with a morning tutorial in place of the surgery/admin time:
- 8:30-11:00 Surgery (2.5h Clinical)
- 11:00-12:00 Admin/Debrief (1h Admin)
- 12:00-12:30 LUNCH (30mins Paid Break)
- 12:30-13:30 Accompanying home visit (1h Clinical)
- 13:30-14:00 Education time/WBPA/Portfolio (30mins Education)
- 14:00-16:00 Surgery (2h Clinical)
- 16:00-16:30 Admin/Debrief (30mins Admin)
Some full-time trainees prefer to condense their 32 hours into 3 long days rather than 4 standard days. Here is an example template for this:


Non-urgent advice: GP Educator Pathway
The Kent, Surrey and Sussex Primary Care Department at Health Education England produce podcasts about GP training and the GP Educator Pathway which can be accessed here.
LTFT trainees – advice on when they will need to have an ESR and ARCP panel