About Coastal West Sussex

Our affiliated training practices are based across the region serving a varied demographic of patients. As a trainee you will have the opportunity to consulting in an environment with patients from urban and rural areas, from a range of ethnic/social backgrounds, who speak a host of different languages giving you the opportunity to ideal experience of working as a GP trainee in a varied landscape. Our programme offers a wide range of training posts across the region’s CQC ‘outstanding’ rated hospitals, community services and hospices

We run a 3-year training programme which is learner centred and encompasses a broad spectrum of the GP curriculum.  Our aim is to train you to be a holistic clinical specialist in family medicine, equipping you with the skills to pass the required assessed components while also having some fun, enjoying your learning experience and making new friends.

The overall programme includes 16 months in general practice and 20 months in secondary or community care.  A full-time rota consists of:

• GPST1 & 2 – six rotations of 4 months each including the core rotations of paediatrics, psychiatry and medicine; with a further placement in either surgery, ENT, palliative care, medicine, surgery or obstetrics & gynaecology.  You will also have one 4-month rotation in general practice at an urban or a rural surgery.
• GPST3 – 12-month rotation based at a single GP surgery attached to an experienced GP trainer in an accredited teaching practice.

Your hospital posts will be based at either St Richards Hospital in Chichester or Worthing Hospital which are part of Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust.  In most cases, you will be based at this one location for the duration of your GPST1/2 training. There are some community placements in Bosham, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Lancing & Goring-by-Sea (for palliative care placements or community mental health) and most of these are accessible by train or bus.

Training is flexible and if you are less than full time (LTFT) your placement length will be extended so that you gain sufficient experience, but you will still do the full 6 rotations for maximum breadth. If you work on a less than full time basis your training programme will be calculated according to the % whole time equivalent you will be working e.g. if working at 60% LTFT each 12 month training year will take 20 months to complete.

We also offer some ITP (integrated training posts) posts which split a general practice post with a hospital or community post. These rotations would typically include 3 days in a GP surgery and 2 days in hospital (based on a full-time rota).  Feedback from these posts is generally positive and enables trainees to enjoy time in different areas while remaining focussed on general practice.

Please note that GP training is changing from 2021 and will include more time working in primary care. We will keep you updated as things progress.

Our surgeries are a mixture of urban, suburban and rural practices with varying patient workloads, expectations and patient demographics. All GP practices in the area belong to NHS West Sussex CCG which in turn is divided into small subgroups known as PCN (primary care networks). Although you will be attached to one surgery, you will become aware that the PCNs are becoming increasingly and many GP surgeries work together within a PCN to deliver patient services between them. Working in a surgery is great fun and you will experience a diverse training experience and see a wide variety of clinical presentations.