Nine in ten places on GP practice preregistration pilot scheme filled

The fill rate for the GP preregistration pilot scheme represents a “significant achievement”, says Health Education England.

Waiting room GP surgery

Health Education England (HEE) has seen a 90% fill rate for its GP preregistration pilot scheme, which is due to start in the summer of 2019.

HEE described the 90% fill rate, which equates to 114 trainees, as a “significant achievement”.

“By placing pharmacy trainees alongside general practice staff and GP trainees, the aim is to create a more integrated primary care system in which healthcare professionals help one another provide expert care and treatment for their patients,” said a spokesperson for the education body.

According to HEE, the GP preregistration pilot, which is being funded by the Pharmacy Integration Fund, aims to develop trainees’ understanding of how pharmacists’ skills and knowledge can enhance general practice services.

Once the 2019 phase of the pilot project has been completed, HEE will be reviewing its plans for 2020.

“We are currently scoping out the evaluation of the programme and expect to appoint an evaluator in [summer 2019]. We would expect it to cover trainees, pharmacy employers, partners, tutors, GPs, GP practice staff and the team supporting the [pilot project].”

Separate to the GP preregistration pilot scheme, preregistration places for the 2019 cohort of trainees in community pharmacy and hospital trusts had a 59% fill rate through Oriel.

Data from HEE show that 2,881 preregistration places were available via Oriel for 2019 recruitment, including 789 hospital places and 2,092 community places.

This was an increase from 2018, when 2,161 places were available. HEE said the increase reflected the number of community pharmacy training sites wishing to use Oriel to recruit preregistration trainees.

Overall, 1,943 appointable applicants were identified, meaning that the maximum fill rate achievable — had all trainees within the scheme been allocated places — was 67%.

As a result, HEE said the 59% actual fill rate through Oriel represented a “significant achievement”, and meant that 87% of appointable applicants accepted a place via the system.

For 2019 preregistration recruitment, HEE added an option for ‘enhanced preferencing’, which allowed trainees to reorder their preferences as often as they wished up until the final iteration of the allocation process. As such, trainees who did not receive offers initially were able to reselect their choices until an offer was made.

Last updated
Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, Nine in ten places on GP practice preregistration pilot scheme filled;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2019.20206056

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