The Severn School has close links with its sister school in the Peninsula because in the past we were combined as the South West Region but the Peninsula has had its own Postgraduate Deanery since the creation of the Peninsula Undergraduate Medical School.
 

The Severn School of Medicine began in embryo form in the summer of 2006 and aims to combine the roles of the Deanery and Royal College of Physicians in supervising, organising and supporting training in postgraduate medicine in our region. Our first year was largely devoted to adapting our existing Calman training posts to meet the requirements of Modernising Medical Careers and managing the debacle of the MTAS computerised application forms but we are now concentrating on achieving the highest possible standards of postgraduate medical education in our school. To help us in this task the School’s Board has 4 trainee members (2 each from core training and higher training) to ensure that we are fully aware of trainees’ views and concerns. Moreover the design of this website has been based on results of questionnaires to our junior doctors on the content that they find most useful.

 

We have 294 trainees in core training and higher specialty training. With these large numbers electronic communication is the most efficient way of communicating so it is essential for our trainees to use this website as their main source of information. If you are already working in Severn as a medicine trainee please make sure that you have registered (contact matthew.hill@southwest.nhs.uk) and check the website regularly for information on courses and the targets that you need to achieve; such as keeping your eportfolio up to date and deadlines for issues like ARCP (Annual Review of Competence Progression). It is also crucial that we have up to date email addresses for trainees. This is your responsibility; please make sure that you inform our administration by clicking on the contact form below if your email address changes.

Two heads are usually better than one so the leadership of  this school is shared by Dr Martin Hetzel, Head of School, (Respiratory Physician at Bristol Royal Infirmary) and Dr Stirling Pugh, Deputy Head (Gastroenterologist, Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton). We are also Associate Postgraduate Deans and are responsible to the Postgraduate Dean, Professor Davinder Sandhu, for maintaining the highest possible standards of postgraduate education in medicine. He in turn is answerable to PMETB (Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board). We also consult closely with Dr Geoffrey Wright, Associate Postgraduate Dean for MMC who is our local expert on the MMC training scheme. 

Managerial support is given by Shara Paulo (School of Medicine Manager - shara.paulo@southwest.nhs.uk) and Matthew Hill (School of Medicine Support Manager - matthew.hill@southwest.nhs.uk). 

 

The committee structure of the School is illustrated below. The overall strategy of the School is planned by the School Board whose members include 4 trainee representatives. The board is supported by two main committees:-

 

The Core Medical Training (CMT) Committee  is chaired by Dr Pugh.  Training is coordinated by two Training Program Directors, Dr Peter Collins (University Hospitals Bristol) and Dr Raghuram Ananthakrishnan (Gloucester NHS Foundation Trust) who are supported by Royal College of Physicians Tutors from each Trust, supporting educational supervisors and two trainee representatives. It is responsible for organising the CMT rotations and local training programmes in each of the Trusts,  and for reviewing the progress of trainees through the ARCP (Annual Review of Competence Progression) system which is based on trainee e-portfolio records.

 

The Higher Training (HST)  Committee is chaired by Dr Hetzel and comprises the Training Programme Directors and Royal College Specialty Advisers for the 22 specialties available in Severn, together with 2 higher specialty trainees. It is responsible for the overall supervision of higher specialty training in the medical subspecialties. However the detailed organisation and supervision of each specialty is the responsibility of the individual Training Programme Directors who are supported by a Training Committee (Specialty Advisory Committee SAC) of consultants in their specialty. Most of these committees also have trainee representatives.  Locally in each trust a lead educational supervisor (Speciality Tutor) liaises with the Training Program Director to maintain training standards. 

 

Run through training ceased after the August 2009 entry  following the Tooke recommendations.  From 2010, (on graduation from Core Medical Training with successful completion of the ARCP) trainees will apply nationally to the higher specialty training program of their choice.  It is currently anticipated that small medical specialties may recruit through a single lead deanery for that specialty whereas larger specialties will probably interview locally where deaneries have vacancies.   
 
On other pages of the website you can find more details of our Core Training and Higher Training programmes - Core Training or Higher Training

 
 
 
Last updated at 15:12, 20 November 2009