The West Midlands is an increasingly popular place to train. It is a large Deanery both geographically but also with the number of doctors training to become GPs. Reassuringly the vast majority stay where they train.

The area is now exceeding targets with an intake each year 450-500 so that the School of General Practice in the West Midlands delivers GP training over 3 years to over 1500 Associates in Training (GP Trainees). The experience of each programme is very individual with trainees working in very different environments but with a common reliance on great communication and good clinical knowledge and skills; every village, town or city practice has the everyday variety and challenges of its own population but there are the additional challenges and satisfaction of working in the isolated and rural communities in North Staffordshire, Hereford and Shropshire or supporting the families living in deprivation and poverty in the towns and cities of the West Midlands.

The focus of GP training is “you, the future GP”, surrounded by a support team which includes the Clinical and Educational Supervisors, plus dedicated Programme Directors. There are almost 900 trainers across the region, which has 16 training programmes, with 70 Programme Directors with 5 Area Directors overseeing each patch. Training should be experiential and supportive both in hospital and in primary care.

Training for 2021 is currently being transformed with careful selection of hospital attachments suitable for developing the future GP. These will contribute to the first 12 months of the training programme, which will now be followed by 24 months of training in primary care. Many of these will contain exciting, innovative attachments to community services such as mental health, sexual health, homeless services etc...

There are currently TERS incentives for some (but not all) of the programmes in Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Herefordshire. Select these only if you are committed to moving and staying within these training areas.

But the area is a large area and so it’s important to select your training programme realistically. It can be difficult to transfer after starting training. Other factors to consider are access to affordable housing, good schools, sports and leisure activities and becoming part of the local community. To help this, selection is down to scheme and even programme level.

There is good access to Less than Fulltime Training as well as opportunities to develop academic careers through Academic Fellowships, post-CCT fellowships and run-through programmes where training can lead onto supportive jobs within the Primary Care Networks after CCT. Because of hard work and the support of the training supervisors, over 95% of trainees will graduate with MRCGP.

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