Training Practice Policy

Accreditation Certificate

This certifies that:

The Well Street Surgery

is an accredited Undergraduate Teaching Practice for the Academic Unit of Community-Based Medical Education 2025 to 2028

Medical Students

We host medical students from Barts and The London Medical School.

You may see a medical student in addition to your doctor or nurse.

This is a very important part of their training as future doctors, and we are grateful for your help in this regard. All student activity is supervised by your doctor or nurse.

Your Choice

If you prefer to see the doctor alone, without a student being present, this will not affect your care.

Training GPs

We are a training practice, which means that we train doctors in General Practice. These doctors are already qualified and are licensed to see patients independently, but not necessarily issue prescriptions. These are the different types of doctors you may meet or be offered appointments with at The Well Street Surgery who are not registered GPs.

1. Doctors in their second post-graduate year are consulting with patients in general practice. 50% of doctors must do a 3-month like this before entering specialist training. They are very closely supervised and must get their prescriptions authorised and signed by their GP trainer.
2. Registrars in general practice who are training to become independent GPs must see and treat people in general practice through their fourth post-graduate year. They have already done three years post-graduate training in hospital. They are also supervised and have a nominated trainer to whom they can turn for help and advice at any time. They are allowed to sign their own prescriptions.
3. Some doctors will be already senior doctors or qualified GPs in their own country, but need to spend time in UK general practice (usually at least 6 months) before they can practice independently as GPs in this country. They are also called registrars.

You may well encounter doctors providing joint appointments where the trainer sits in with one or other of the doctors described above, or even with one of the partners or registered GPs at The Well Street Surgery to learn and keep their own practice up to date.

Finally, you may well be asked by the doctor who sees you if they could video the appointment they will have with you. This provides a powerful way for the doctor to review and improve their appointments.

You will always be warned in advance if a video is planned, and you can ask the doctor not to record your appointment. This will not affect your treatment in any way.

At the end of a recorded appointment, you will be asked to sign a document saying you have given your consent, which you may refuse, and the video will be destroyed. Recorded appointments do not usually leave the surgery and are destroyed after review. There is one exception to this rule; registrars, as part of their evaluation for fitness to practice, must provide about 8 appointments for review by an independent GP assessor. Your doctor will make this very explicit to you if he expects to use your appointment like this.