Director pushing to raise bar for future NHS Tayside doctors

Report outlines concerns in oncology and psychiatry

Concerns about the future of NHS Tayside’s medical training in both psychiatry and oncology have been raised by the director of medical education.

Dr John Davidson also says a “dramatic increase” in medical students and the introduction of standardised assessments could have a major impact on medical education within NHS Tayside.

His 2019 report says psychiatry “will likely remain in enhanced monitoring” and oncology will soon have a triggered deanery visit from NHS Education Scotland (NES) based on recent survey results and other quality data.

The survey was carried out by the General Medical Council (GMC) as part of a wider quality control process.

NHS Tayside is a local education provider with requirements set by the GMC for promoting excellent standards of medical education and training.

Dr Davidson told the board there was “a lot of positive feedback” for training schemes in many of NHS Tayside’s departments including radiology, dermatology and ear, nose and throat (ENT) which he says are among the highest performing in the UK.

However, he outlined challenges facing NHS Tayside in both oncology and psychiatry.

His report highlights how general adult mental health services, across all programmes and across the whole board area, are currently under enhanced monitoring by the GMC.

Issues include safety, supervision, support and culture.

Oncology training will soon come under close scrutiny with a triggered deanery visit from NES.

The director of medical education also reported the launch of a standardised assessment scheme by the GMC to achieve greater consistency across all medical schools.

The GMC plans to introduce the Medical Licensing Assessment for all medical students and most international medical graduates from outside the European Economic Area in 2023.

Dr Davidson told the board he thinks the introduction of standardised assessments to replace medical schools running their own set of assessments could lead to a league table.

He said while Dundee University’s medical school rated highly in terms of student satisfaction, their students’ pass rates when they went on to sit professional exams were “below the median”.

He said: “I think that’s a situation we would like to improve on. We perhaps don’t prepare them for the big bad world they are about to enter.”

He reassured the board it was not something he was at “panic stations” about but felt they “should aspire beyond mediocrity”.

We perhaps don’t prepare them for the big bad world they are about to enter. DR JOHN DAVIDSON