Traditional Practice Visits
Following a successful pilot, we are using a new method of trainer re-approval in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. It takes account of recent changes in GP education and in the way practices work. Please see the Light Touch page for further information.
We are continuing to use traditional practice visits for the initial approval of practices that wish to start training, practices where particular concerns have been raised and a random sample of practices for the purpose of quality control.
Please visit our downloads section for access to documents and questionnaires.
What Happens on a Practice Visit?
Training Practices
You will be contacted sometime before your approval for training is due to expire and offered some dates. You may wish to initiate the process if, for example, you are a new trainer seeking approval for the first time.
Visits usually take place on a Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning or afternoon. As we want to see the trainee, we try to avoid Thursday afternoon during the half-day release course term time. A visit normally takes between two and three hours. We understand the pressures under which practices work and only expect the trainer(s) and practice manager to be available for the whole visit. The trainee(s) should be available at some time during the visit. We are happy to meet any members of the primary healthcare team who are present, perhaps for the initial introduction or the final feedback.
The visiting team will normally include Dr Vic Schrieber, Associate Dean, a trainer from your local workshop and one of our team of practice managers.
The team will need some information before the visit. You can let us have this by completing the following forms:
- The pre-visit questionnaire provides information about the practice.
- The educational conversation enables us to discuss the professional development of the trainer(s).
- Trainee(s) should complete a learner evaluation form, download a copy here.
These forms are available in word format and can be downloaded from this website. You will also find contact details including return e-mail addresses, phone and fax numbers on the website so please get in touch if there are any problems.
It would be preferable if you could complete the forms and return them by e-mail. The trainee(s) should be given the choice of returning the form with yours or, if there is a wish for confidentiality, separately.
It is anticipated that after initial introductions, the visiting practice manager and your practice manager will discuss a range of practice administration issues. The pre-visit questionnaire will help this process. The aim is to verify the systems in place. We understand that you will have carried out a similar exercise for your QOF and we are not looking to duplicate work. We would still like you to see the results of an audit of 50 randomly selected medical records as requested in the questionnaire. If you have done this recently for a QOF visit then that information will suffice. We should also like to see the QOF visit report summary. If this is satisfactory, we are unlikely to require any more information relating to the medical records. However, should there be any concerns, we may wish to see some records. As the team comprises two practising GPs and a practice manager, we are all well aware of issues related to confidentiality.
The visiting trainer and Associate Dean would like to discuss educational matters with the trainer(s) and others directly involved in training. An educational conversation form completed by each trainer will be helpful with this. We should also like the opportunity to meet the current trainee(s) in private and the completed learner evaluation form(s) will help here. Finally, we should like to see a recording of a tutorial with each trainer, preferably of a random or problem case analysis, and ideally lasting about 10 minutes. We have found it more useful to see a short, self-contained tutorial of this type rather than a small part of a full-length tutorial. We are, of course, more interested in the learning / teaching process than the content.
The visiting team may also wish to see:
- A summary of the Practice Development Plan
- The audits that the practice has carried out since the last visit
- The trainer's Personal Development Plan and Educational Portfolio
- A record of the teaching programme including information about induction, needs assessment, tutorial planning and assessment
At the end of the visit, the team will want to have a brief discussion in private before sharing with you its proposed recommendations to the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Programme Board. You will have the opportunity to comment on these. Recommendations need to be ratified by the West Midlands Postgraduate School Board for General Practice after which you will receive confirmation.
Retainer Practices
The arrangements for and format of visits are similar to those for training practices and you are asked to refer to that section. As there are only a few practices that are approved under the terms of the Doctors' Retainer Scheme and are not also training practices, we have not produced separate documentation. There is however a retainer questionnaire that the retained doctor should complete before the visit. We ask you to download this from the website along with the pre-visit questionnaire and the educational conversation form. Please complete them as appropriate, ignoring the parts that do not apply, and return them, preferably by e-mail.
We would like to see evidence of educational activity but we do not expect you to produce a video.
If you have any questions, please ask.