Welcome to the scheme

Learning on the scheme

The Half-Day Release Course

1. The half-day release course aims to provide a comprehensive package over the three years. There are several main components.
2. There is a seminar module that runs in three-year cycles. Outside speakers / experts attend most of these. The topics are chosen by the SHOs/ Registrars from a range of categories to ensure that the topics are both of interest but also that the topics are diverse and comprehensive.
3. There is a critical appraisal/ evidence based practice and audit module run by Dr Jonathan Gore (Course Organiser), which teaches critical appraisal skills, audits skills and how to use electronic databases.
4. Communication skills are taught systematically using video analysis and simulated patients.
5. The fourth module is a study group that discusses interesting or difficult cases brought by the SHOs/Registrars to look at the doctor/ patient relationship and to help the presenter with their future management. The group is led by Diana Bass and Jonathan Gore. These groups are known as Balint groups after the Psychotherapist who first developed this method of learning with General Practitioners in 1957! For most doctors this is a new way of looking at our work and may well be a unique opportunity in their career.
6. There is a weekly journal club that is run by the Registrars/ SHOs.
7. Six times a year the half-day release is held in a local training practice. To help choose suitable placements and to appreciate the diversity and quality of General Practice in Hackney.

The half-day release also has a very important function of keeping in touch with the doctors on the scheme; lunch together being the fourth module. It is also a way of keeping in touch with a general practice perspective during the hospital year.

Attendance at the half-day release is taken as study leave from hospital posts and as part of the GP Registrars working week.

Some of the hospital posts' rota make 100% attendance at the half-day release difficult, for some jobs there are no problems. Course organisers need to meet at least yearly with the individual consultants to monitor this and make any improvements that are possible.

During the Registrar year there are no problems in attending the half-day release.