GP training posts
June 2007
The GPC has received a number of queries from junior doctors who only applied for general practice placements and who, despite a good score in their selection assessment, may not secure a training placement in August 2007 as they chose a popular unit of application/deanery as their first choice. It appears that deaneries are giving preference to those applicants who put the deanery as their first preference. Therefore, despite a high national score, a trainee doctor may be unsuccessful with a deanery which they put as their second, third or fourth preference if places in those deaneries have already been filled by doctors who, although may have received a lower national score, put the deanery as their first choice.
The application process for those applying to general practice was set out in the original applicants’ guidance by NHS GP Recruitment. The following is an extract from an explanation provided by Dr Simon Plint, Oxford DPGPE:
"The initial shortlisting assessment is essentially a competition for the deanery where you get your interview/selection centre assessment and where you will be competing for a training place. If you scored well at the shortlisting competition, then you will have been allocated to your first preference deanery, but if you scored less well then you may only get to a lower preference deanery, provided that your lower preference deaneries were actually less popular.... After the shortlisting the competition is at deanery level. If any vacancies remain after the offers in any of the other deaneries to which you originally applied then there is a possibility of matching, if you are near the top of the reserves....There will potentially be some people in other deaneries appointed with a lower score, but that will be the case across all deaneries where there are different levels of competition in different specialties."
The GPC would like to hear from doctors who are in this situation so that we can feed back concerns to the Committee of General Practice Education Directors (COGPED). We hope that individual deaneries will be able to take reasonable action in specific circumstances.