The GP Workforce Pipeline- Supporting Medical Students towards Careers in General Practice and to the Timely Celebration of the Retirement Clock

In this workshop we will focus on 3 key aspects of building and maintaining the UK general practitioner workforce: encouraging recruitment to GP careers during medical school studies; increasing recruitment to GP training programmes; and retention of experienced GPs.

Introduction

We will review the importance of getting and keeping on track with GP Recruitment, Retention and Retirement as they impact on whole careers, by briefly presenting recent research projects as a backdrop for considering three over-arching questions:

Where are we now? - current GP workforce situation in each of our research areas will set the scene for sub-group discussions:

Medical students – influencing their orientation towards GP work while attending medical school (Caroline)

F2 career choices – Manchester study – what are F2 doctors’ preferences and perspectives and how can these be shaped by their early experiences of medical work? (Sharon)

Retention -of experienced trained GPs Exeter ReGROUP study findings (Emily/John)

Where do we need to be? – projected workloads, new models of care, skill mix etc (Emily/John)

How do we get from here to there? 

Sub-groups facilitated by each of the 3 presenters will focus on discussion of topics most relevant to one of the 3 areas – drawing on group knowledge, experience and ideas to generate potential strategies, solutions and proposals for further discussion or action.

Round-up reporting back

Discussion points and actions to take forward – what, where and by whom?