Enhancing the future doctor workforce

The need for doctors with generalist skills has been emphasised by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required large groups of medical professionals to learn to work differently and at a rapid pace to meet patients needs across the county.

Health Education England has been building upon the findings of the Future Doctor engagement programme to embed ‘generalism’ within medical education.

HEE working with stakeholder partners are developing a wraparound professional development offer to enhance current specialty training. Proposals to enhance generalism are being developed regionally and will complement current training, across the first five years of Postgraduate Medical Education.

The aim is to embed generalist skills early in training to support future doctors to deliver high quality care and meet the ever-changing complex demands of the health and care landscape.

Enhancing generalism in foundation and specialty training will mean our future doctors can confidently:

·     Support ‘whole person’ care for patients with multiple conditions;

·     Be fluent in shared-decision making and personalised care;

·     Be collaborative leaders and colleagues with a thorough grounding in human factors and team science;

·     Understand and address the population health and care needs of the communities they serve by harnessing data, technology and contemporary research methodologies;

·     Apply their learning to reduce health inequalities and address local health priorities and specific needs such as homeless health, modern slavery and other social justice agendas;

·     Develop their skills in informatics, digital health and epidemiology.

Professor Wendy Reid, Director of Quality and Education and Medical Director, Health Education England said:

“By embedding generalism in training we will ensure that all doctors have a robust, future-proof training experience, encouraging a curiosity for lifelong learning through robust and personally relevant enquiry and are so that they become empowered to effect change within the communities they serve to ensure the best outcomes for their patients. The Future Doctor programme is looking at enhancing generalism it is not about re-writing or amending established curricula or training courses. We are not creating a new Generalist specialty. Nor are we diminishing the role of either the Specialist or the GP.”

Link to report