£1.2m for East Lancashire trainee health centre GPs (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Yet again a waste of money like building the medical centres and the vacant hospital called a Royal place. lmao

Wouldn’t it be better if the NHS encourage more research to be done medically so that people like me would be able to work!

Oh, joy. We regularly have trainee doctors at the local health centre. I would swear they were being used as triage because at the reception desk you have to sign a waiver to have permission for them to be in the room with you. Now, the first time I did. Instead of seeing my GP, I was taken to another room by the trainee and asked all sorts of questions, then asked some questions most of which didn't relate to any medical condition and why I wanted to see my GP - in fact to any relevence to my visit to the health centre - and after about 20 minutes went back out. But the impression you are given by your health practice is that you will see the trainee in the presence of the more senior doctor, not separately as patients were being seen like some triage system ie trainees deciding whether it was worth the GPs time, as the last line said was they would go and see the GP and tell them what you had said. Erm. Then much later saw my GP with the trainee there in attendance. The second time this happened I refused to have a trainee present. Why? Because it adds time to the appointment and I want to see the person I made an appointment with not be palmed off onto a trainee who is leaning. Keyword here - learning. The last time there were waits of almost two hours because of it and appointments were delayed. Now our NHS wants to do it at every practice. Just making an appointment with your GP these days is a nightmare in itself. As no such things as advance appointments anymore which to many were far more sensible and you could plan your life around it. Until someone decided book on the day was better. Meaning waiting rooms are clogged up as everyone has phoned in before 9 am, so you may not get to see your own GP for weeks anyway! Also, why is it some GPs say on their notices you can book four weeks in advance yet when you try to can't and are told it's only book on the day despite what you just read on their own notices!

So Kathy, I want to see my own GP whom I have built up a patient to GP relationship with ie he knows me and not a trainee doctor who doesn't! If that is helping patients you really need to get out more and understand the basics of medical treatment eg good relationships between doctor and patient. In other words, how it used to be done before all these NHS Book Direct, all that crazyness started.

Dear Davidoff,

I am sorry to hear of your experiences. As one of the 'trainee doctors' i wanted to clarify a couple of your points. The people you refer to in your post are Final Year Medical Students and NOT doctors). This is an invaluable learning environment for us, just before we are about to qualify. The GP encourages us to see you (the patient) individually, so that we can listen to your problems, think of possible diagnosis and act independently. We then 'leave the room' to propose our diagnosis and management plan to the GP, who then either agrees or disagrees with us.

In this way, we are not spoonfed and instead taught to think on our feet. I apologise once again if this has caused you inconvenience but as a final year medical student (in my 6th year), i have found interacting with you the patient on my own to be one of the best experiences of teaching i have had. Essentially, quality teaching like this will only serve to benefit the interests of our local community in the future.

Secondly, the "GP Trainees" in this article refer's to the doctors who have qualified and are training to be GPs. I hope this has cleared up some of the confusion.

Thanks, Ben.

Davidoff whatever happened to tolerance? EVERYONE has to learn something at various points in their lives. We need to understand this and recognise sometimes when a trainee is taking his/her time or is unsure of something etc we have ALL been in similar situations (but not necessarily the same one admittedly) and therefore we need to be tolerant and if you can help them by been patient so much the better!