Heavy workloads and poor supervision are deterring doctors from emergency medicine

Abstract

Heavy workloads and inconsistent and inadequate supervision are deterring doctors from training in emergency medicine, concludes a review from the General Medical Council. The GMC carried out checks on the quality of doctors’ training at seven emergency medicine departments in England and Jersey between December 2012 and February 2013.1 The checks were prompted by the rising number of reports of concerns to the GMC about education and training in emergency medicine—and particularly about very junior trainees working unsupervised at night. Figures from the College of Emergency Medicine show that in 2012 only 61 of the 115 foundation doctors offered a place to start training in emergency medicine accepted the offer. This is the second lowest acceptance rate of any specialty. The seven sites used by the GMC were selected on the basis of evidence from the …