Our Community Paediatric Team has been ranked top in the UK by Resident Doctors for the training opportunities and support it provides in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) National Training Survey.
The team, which supports children with long-term health conditions across Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG), is rated first out of 148 paediatric centres in the UK for the experience, clinical supervision and support it offers to Resident Doctors.
Doctors also rated the service top for teamwork, rota design and overall satisfaction in the annual survey.
Dr Tamsin Woodbridge, Consultant Community Paediatrician and College Tutor for Resident Doctors, said: “This recognition is a credit to the whole of Children’s Services who make us successful, because it’s the therapists, nurses, admin staff and managers, as well as the doctors who support our Resident Doctors.
“Many of our Doctors in training go on to become community paediatricians and we want them to enjoy working here so we can retain them as brilliant colleagues of the future. We balance giving our Resident Doctors a broad experience of the multi-agency environment they will be working in but also have them delivering the work they will be doing as consultants, under supervision.
“They work with our multi-disciplinary teams, so they might shadow an Occupational Therapist, or go out with a Health Visitor. This creates rich, enjoyable training experiences for them that they can draw on in their consultant career. We are reliant on the wider team to support with this.
“We provide a supportive and nurturing environment recognising they are going to be clinical leaders of the future. We see huge value in exposing them to the wide variety of services we provide in community health.
We love having Resident Doctors in our teams and perhaps that’s why we do so well. It’s enriching for Sirona and us as trainers to be around people who are learning and are so inquisitive.”
Lorraine McMullen, Associate Director of Children’s Services, said: “I am delighted the fantastic work of Sirona’s Community Paediatrics team has been recognised in the annual General Medical Council’s Resident Doctor Survey. Our teams work hard to give Doctors on placement with Sirona the best possible training experience, so they gain real insight into the challenging and hugely rewarding work of community paediatrics.
“Our teams also benefit from the fresh perspective of working alongside a new cohort of Doctors every year. I would like to thank all our Children’s Services for the support and opportunities they provide – these ratings show what an excellent training environment Sirona offers.”
Sirona provides NHS and Local Authority funded adult and children’s community health services across BNSSG. The Community Paediatrics team supports 15 Resident Doctors each year including those destined to be paediatricians, general practitioners, neurologists and child and adolescent mental health specialists.
Dr Sonya Wallbank, Chief People Officer said: “These excellent results highlight Sirona’s continued commitment to providing meaningful and engaging training that supports our vision of delivering improved outcomes for colleagues and the people we serve.
“Our investment in training is helping to equip a new generation of Doctors with the knowledge, compassion and skills to provide high quality healthcare services.”
In 2022, the Community Paediatrics team received an ‘excellent’ rating from Health Education England South West’s panel for paediatrics for the quality of education it offers to Resident Doctors. In the same year, the team also won three accolades for training Doctors at the Paediatric Awards for Training Achievements (PAFTAs)
