Doctors in training given the support they need to continue their training journey

ENGLAND'S Doctors in Postgraduate training are benefiting from a further £25m investment by Health Education England (HEE) during 2022/23 to support the continued recovery of medical training which is essential to service recovery and patient care. The financial investment last year achieved significant savings for the NHS, with reduced extension rates and increased support for trainee and educator wellbeing.

The Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Training Recovery Programme launched in 2020 to minimise the impact of the Pandemic on the progression of England's 55,000 Doctors in postgraduate training, critical to managing the NHS care backlog. This year's funding has been divided into £20m split Regionally, based on the number of Doctors in training programmes in each area to be used in the specialties where Doctors are most at risk of falling behind in their training. The remaining £5m is being allocated for cross-regional and national interventions.

We have now developed the Training Recovery Toolkit aimed at Directors of Medical Education (DMEs), Training Programme Directors (TPDs), supervisors and other medical educators to illustrate the impact of interventions on training recovery and to encourage adoption of interventions. With this toolkit, we share real training recovery case studies that target multi specialty specific needs of Doctors in training and their educators and provide key contacts at HEE who can help with queries about training recovery interventions and funding.

Professor Sheona McLeod, Medical Director for Medical Reform at HEE, said:- "The funding for this year shows a shared commitment to maintaining the training of postgraduate Doctors delivering vital clinical services as they progress through their careers. Allocating the funds Regionally supports specific targeted innovations for individuals and services where they need it most. We will build on the innovation and best practice seen over the 1st year of the programme which are highlighted in the Training Recovery Toolkit. The toolkit can assist Regions in generating and prioritising ideas which will have the greatest impact on recovery, while continuing to focus on wellbeing and ensuring Doctors and educators are supported during the pressures of Winter and training and service recovery."

Examples of training recovery interventions shared on the toolkit, include:-

► Individualised training recovery solutions for greater flexibility in training pathways, to ensure both the future supply of consultants and GPs, and service delivery, and to increase Doctors morale.

► Virtual and blended learning, simulation, immersive technologies including:- Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Simulation, Avatars and Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) and E-learning courses.

► Wellbeing support for training recovery and future health with a range of tools, resources and programmes which support the wellbeing of both learners and their educators, reduce burnout, and improve flexibility.

Ruth Parks, Surgical Trainee, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHSFT, said:- "The training recovery interventions in the East Midlands have helped surgical trainees to practice and improve key surgical skills at a time when there were no or reduced theatre lists through cadaveric skills courses. The interventions have also helped our trainees achieve competencies required for CCT including attendance at mandatory courses."

For further information about the Training Recovery toolkit and/or the Training Recovery Programme, please contact us at:- TrainingRecovery@HEE.NHS.UK.

Annual data on Hospital admissions published

THE latest annual report on Hospital admissions in English NHS Hospitals has been published by NHS Digital. The Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity 2021 to 2022 report includes data on Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) and Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs).

The data is broken down to cover information on:-

► Causes of admissions.

► Diagnoses on admission.

► Procedures carried out.

► Patient demographics.

► Regional or organisational breakdowns.

► Changes over time.

The report covers admissions to NHS Hospitals as well as NHS commissioned work in independent providers in England.

The main tables do not represent a count of individual people or patients as the same person could be admitted to Hospital multiple times or seen by of number of different consultants. It is possible to analyse the HES data to provide an estimated count of people seen.

The report uses data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)3, which is an invaluable tool for the NHS to understand demands on the frontline; where it is used to plan for new services and support research into new treatments and drugs.

Each record in HES includes key information including details of the patient's:- age, gender, geographic details, when they were treated and what they were treated for. All published figures are aggregated and anonymous.

Also published was the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF); Prevalence, Achievements and Personalised Care Adjustments Report, England 2021 to 2022, which provides the recorded prevalence of 21 conditions4 including:- asthma, hypertension, dementia, diabetes and depression.

The annual publication also identifies how the recorded prevalence of these conditions has changed since the previous year.

The prevalence data is collected from GPs in England and can be broken down to Regional and general practice level.

This dataset is made up of information voluntarily provided by 97.5% of general practices in England. It is collected through the QOF, which is primarily used to improve care for patients by rewarding practices for the quality of care they provide5.

Conditions are grouped into categories. These are:-

► Cardiovascular.

► Respiratory.

► Lifestyle.

► High dependency and other long term conditions.

► Mental health and neurology.

► Musculoskeletal.

► Fertility, obstetrics and gynaecology.

► Quality improvement.

► Vaccination and immunisation.

Prevalence of some conditions is measured as a proportion of the total number of people registered at a surgery, whereas others are age specific.

QOF also provides information on the activity of GPs in relation to 27 indicator groups overall; this is expressed as achievement.

Achievement scores are used to calculate what payment a general practice should receive according to the services it delivered.

Due to the Covid19 Pandemic, income protection was applied to the majority of QOF indicators in:- 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022, therefore should be viewed with caution when comparing against previous years.

Read the full report:- Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF); Prevalence, Achievements and Personalised Care Adjustments Report, England, 2021 to 2022.