The hidden influence on the Shape of Training

Abstract

Medical education and postgraduate medical training in the United Kingdom have undergone much government reorganisation in recent years. The most recent structural upheavals came in the form of Modernising Medical Careers and the Medical Training Application Service, whose rushed introduction in 2007 led to a protest march by doctors, national news headlines, professorial resignations, and ministerial apologies. This personal perspective on the Shape of Training review sits in the context of this history, showing how these past events have quickly been forgotten and important lessons ignored.1 The independent Shape of Training review aimed to look at the current and future healthcare needs of patients in the United Kingdom and how medical training can match these needs. The Shape of Training review steering group (including the four UK health departments, Health Education England, National Education Scotland, and other major professional medical organisations) appointed David Greenaway, professor of economics at the University of Nottingham, as chair in February 2012. The review’s recommendations were published at the end of 2013 and included proposals to train more generalist doctors, introduce shorter training programmes, and change the point of full General Medical Council (GMC) …