GM Deprivation
GPST Training Programme.
What do our trainees say about the programme?
Daniel Doherty, 2019
"I am halfway through the GM deprivation GPST programme and so far, it has been enjoyable and challenging. I had completed my Foundation programme in Manchester and had encountered many patients who were living in poverty and deprivation, but I often felt like I was not really providing the holistic care that these people needed. I then heard about this training programme and it seemed like a great opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that I needed to be best enabled to provide the care that these people need, and this training programme has not disappointed.
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The programme has placements in specialties that provide useful experience for a career as a GP such as paediatrics, general medicine etc, but it also has placements that are tailored for working in areas of deprivation. For example, I have just finished a placement working in an addiction clinic, that has provided some difficult but rewarding experiences, and there are other exciting placements such as prison medicine.
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The teaching programme has been particularly good to date and has a focus on health inequalities. There are regular guest speakers who deliver sessions on their areas of expertise and there are some sessions with patients as educators so we can better understand their needs and experiences. As well as this, the teaching programme does not neglect the rest of the GP curriculum and should enable us to be well rounded GPs that can pass the AKT and CSA.
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I have felt well supported by the programme director/educator and GP trainers. I had read about high rates of burnout in General Practice which was a worry, but this course also has a focus on self-care and wellbeing, including sessions such as Balint groups, with the aim to develop resilience and personal skills so we are able to cope and thrive with the challenges that a career in General Practice will provide, especially when working as a GP in areas of deprivation."
"If you want to prioritize complex patients over presenting problems then the Greater Manchester Deprivation Scheme is for you. The training programme takes you through not only the standard GP training, but also introduces you to the real socio-economic and health deprivation areas of Greater Manchester where a GP trainee learns the art of treating people than diseases, and invest in their own humanity as well. The training programme specially in the Primary care setting has opened my eyes to the impact of social isolation, childhood trauma, criminality, drug addiction, mental health and economic destitution could have on physical health; not only that but how and why these issues arise and most importantly the significant role of a GP in improving the Quality of both social, mental and physical health of local community. One of the crucial elements of our training has been to master the skill of human connection and give hope to our patients, and aspire FOR the patients- for, in the words of Samuel Coleridge: ‘ He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of Hope."