The North West London general practice (GP) training programme is led by the Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) (a partnership between Imperial College Healthcare and Imperial College London), alongside GPs in Hammersmith and Fulham, and the surrounding area. The programme is the only London-based GP scheme which is centred at an academic department of primary care and public health. This means you’ll have the opportunity to learn about and take part in academic research and teaching, and furthermore, help to influence and shape the scheme itself.

The programme aims to prepare you for a career in the future NHS.  Throughout the three-year programme trainees build skills and knowledge in newly acquired GP roles such as: public health, commissioning, leadership and practice management.  Trainees also learn how to become responsive to the government’s national objectives and the changing needs and expectations of patients.

Our postgraduate GP training programme draws on the Royal College of General Practice curriculum. Throughout the programme you’ll develop essential skills and knowledge in the following areas:

• The epidemiology of primary care and its relationship with secondary care in acute trusts
• General practice duties including GP commissioning, primary care research and teaching, healthcare leadership and management and public health
• Reflective practice and self-directed learning
• How to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary team
• Medical audit skills
• Critical assessment of relevant research.

Please refer to the ST1-ST3 GP ARCP Assessment Requirements

Hands on care

You’ll gain lots of experience while undertaking a series of work placements. You’ll spend 12 months working in secondary care and 24 months working in the community and general practice. Throughout this time, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to network with other trainees from a range of specialisms and gain a wide perspective of healthcare in the UK.

Weekly training session

Every week you’ll be expected to attend a half-day training session at the Academic Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London. These sessions will cover present-day hot topics as well as a broad range of subjects drawn from the curriculum, including:

• GP consultation skills
• Ethics
• Primary care
• Research
• Teaching and healthcare policy

Meet with your programme directors

Throughout the academic term you will meet with your programme directors Dr Samia Hasan, Dr Martin Block and Dr Aisha Newth on a weekly basis. The sessions will:

• Reflect the Royal College of General Practitioners curriculum
• Prepare you for the vocation of general practice
• Cover a broad range of topics both clinical and non-clinical including:
  • Public health
  • Health inequalities
  • Preventative care
  • Cross-cultural medicines
  • Patient self-management
  • Healthcare policy
  • Commissioning
  • Management and leadership
• Include informative lectures run by talented experts from the Trust, Imperial College London and beyond. For instance we regularly work with the Imperial College Business School and the local GP consortia to help enrich your knowledge of healthcare management
• Provide an opportunity to interact with College trainees in surgery, medicine and psychiatry. At each meeting you’ll be encouraged to provide programme feedback. Your feedback helps us to continually improve training

Examination

Training will help prepare you for the MRCGP speciality examination at the end of the programme.

Annual residential trip

Every year we arrange a residential trip to the beautiful surroundings of Cumberland Lodge. We spend time exploring specific topics in greater depth, for example in previous years we have concentrated specifically on consultation skills and leadership.

Exam workshops

Dr Aisha Newth, Dr Martin Block and Dr Samia Hasan, speciality programme directors for Imperial GPST, run regular workshops for trainees in their third year (ST3) to help them prepare for the end of year MRCGP examination.

Social events

We believe it is important for trainees to have a good work-life balance to be able to sustain high clinical performance. We hold regular social events including trips to the theatre and nice local restaurants.