Mid Sussex Vocational Training Scheme

Being a forward thinking Vocational Training scheme, we are based in the Postgraduate Centre at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath. We have a wide variety of hospital posts in Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Medicine, Psychiatry and Geriatric Medicine. In our area, there are over twenty trainers in General Practice, all of whom are committed to a high standard of supportive training in the registrar component of the programme.

We hold our training on a Thursday, either in the postgraduate centre or at other venues for 30 weeks. We also have two residential workshops every year. These last for a day and a half and concentrate on some of the more difficult areas of general practice education. The teaching is very much learner-centred, appropriate to the needs of the group, which are assessed at regular intervals. It is designed to prepare for life as a general practitioner and to develop a balanced professional outlook towards both the individual and the patients in their care.

We provide an education rather than just training. Whilst it is important to prepare for and pass the nMRCGP, in order to practice as a GP, it is also necessary to engender the concept of being a lifelong learner and understand the practice of General Practice in the wider context of the NHS and beyond.

Our course aims to equip the individual also with the necessary skills and specialities that are needed in modern general practice. We are introducing a system of supportive mentoring, which should be available to any participant throughout the hospital years. This helps to understand the effects that the practice of medicine may have on the individual and to help develop lifelong coping strategies in what should turn out to be a very worthwhile and rewarding career.

Mid Sussex Vocational Training scheme is part of Kent Surrey, Sussex Deanery

The Mid Sussex Scheme flourishes as an energetic, enthusiastic and friendly scheme based in a modern hospital. Many local GP's are ex-trainees of the scheme.