We from the Medical School, mostly me, write a piece each week to keep students informed and up to date with various aspects of the Programme. As you can guess some weeks are more interesting than others and sometimes there is more to say.

This past week I attended the Foundation Subcommittee at the Deanery. This committee considers all aspects of the Foundation Programme i.e. FY1 and FY2. Committee members are predominately from the Deanery and I represent the Medical School and student interests. Topics that are covered relate to shadowing, induction into the hospital workplace, pre-employment screening, foundation application process, foundation schools and tracts, careers and doctors in difficulty. The Foundation Programme was set up only few years ago to put structure into an essentially unstructured immediate post registration medical training period. As you can image with a big change like the FY1 and FY2 there has been a lot of discussion as to its merits. Our own Deanery in the Northwest has been very proactive and professional in its approach to the Foundation Programme. Recently a new independent body Medical Education England was been set up as a result of the Darsi review of the NHS. This new body has a number of advisory functions one of which will be to consider the Foundation Programme but that will be months possibly a year or so yet.

After that rather long introduction I really wanted to talk about the Transfer of Information Form commonly referred to as the TOI. This document has been discussed at the Foundation Subcommittee for a year or so. It is a document all students now have to complete prior to taking up their FY1 posts. For Manchester students the document is part of the exit Portfolio review and is in addition to the declaration required by the GMC to pre-register. The aim of the TOI is to be helpful and to ensure that the education supervisors and Foundation directors in the hospitals put in place any support that may be needed for newly qualified doctors to succeed in their new roles delivering health care. 

It is important to be truthful whenever completing forms such as the TOI and GMC pre registration forms. When we are delivering health care we are in a position of trust and we have to be truthful about ourselves, our health,  our skills etc, and our needs. If we can’t undertake certain procedures required we need to declare this. There are all sorts of mechanisms to manage these types of situations. This is a matter of probity and non-declaration is considered a more serious issue.

I often seem to come back to a point that is really true but not believed by students – we in the Medical School and I am sure I speak for the Deanery want to you all to do well, pass your exams, succeed and be good doctors in which every specialty you choose.

CRMB

(This post is written for students and posted to Medlea each week - It is reproduced on e-llaboarte to keep the community up-to-date)