033 WORKLOAD AND TRAINING: AN AUDIT COMPARING THE WORK PATTERNS OF GASTROENTEROLOGY TRAINEES WITH OTHER MEDICAL SPECIALTIES

I.G. Beveridge, I.R. Gooding, M.J. Lockett, J.E.D. Mawdsley. Department of Gastroenterology, St Mary's Hospital, London W2, UK

Background: Most consultant gastroenterologists provide a service in both acute medicine and gastroenterology and most trainees seek dual accreditation. Reports confirm a growing workload for consultants and the need for workforce expansion. One of the aims of the “Calman” specialist registrar programme was to provide higher quality training in a shorter time period. A recent survey in our region suggested that changes arising from the “New Deal” would lead to reductions in clinic and endoscopy experience amounting to a loss of about 30 weeks of training. The aim of this study was to compare the workload and training patterns of gastroenterology trainees with those of other medical specialties.

Methods: All trainees in our region were asked to complete a survey documenting their typical weekly timetable and an identical survey was completed by a sample of trainees from other medical specialties.

Results: 25 gastroenterology trainees from 14 hospitals (5 teaching, 9 DGH) completed questionnaires. 23 trainees from other specialties in 4 hospitals (1 teaching, 3 DGH) participated. Specialties represented included; cardiology, endocrinology, respiratory medicine, rheumatology and elderly care. Gastroenterology trainees attend a median of 2 clinics (range 2–3) and 3 endoscopy sessions (range 2–5) per week. By contrast other trainees attend a median of 2 clinics (range 1–5) but have only 1 session (range 0–2) for other specialty activities (e.g. bronchoscopy, angiography etc.). Gastroenterology trainees had less available time for general ward-work and the majority (55%) had no allocated session for adminstration, teaching or research. 85% of other trainees had at least 1 session allocated for these activities.

Conclusions: Gastroenterology trainees, like their consultant trainers, have work patterns which reflect the increasing pressures on both general medical and gastroenterology services. The “New Deal” and …