Our Community Paediatrics team has received an ‘excellent’ rating for the quality of education it offers to junior doctors.
Health Education England South West’s quality panel for paediatrics awarded the service an excellent rating for the high standard of education and experience it provides trainees.
The Community Paediatrics team, which supports children with long-term health conditions across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, is also ranked third in the country by trainee doctors for the training it provides.
Trainees named our team as one of the best in the country in an annual survey carried out by the General Medical Council. The team was also rated third in the country for local teaching and was highly commended for its supportive environment and teamwork.
Dr Tamsin Woodbridge, a Consultant Community Paediatrician with Sirona, is the college tutor for the junior doctors. She said: “I think we’ve got a real culture of being kind and welcoming to others and making sure training is prioritised. We work hard to give our doctors in training rich training opportunities, giving them the right experience for them at the right time.
“We have around eight doctors in training at a time. They come from different fields, including paediatrics, GPs and child and adolescent psychiatry. They rotate every six months, with some staying for up to five years if they are going to be a community paediatrician. Our service benefits from the experiences they bring from their parent speciality and the locality they have been trained in.
“Nationally, we don’t have enough consultant community paediatricians, so training new doctors is very important. If we invest in our doctors in training, then they may want to stay to work as our colleagues of the future.”
It is not the first time the team has been recognised for its excellent work in training junior doctors. Last year, the team won Training Environment of the Year at the Paediatric Awards for Training Achievements (PAFTAs). Consultant Community Paediatrician, Clare Sheahan was awarded Educational Supervisor of the Year, while Pam Ellis was named the Unsung Hero for going ‘above and beyond’ in her work as a clinic assistant.
Tamsin is thrilled the efforts of colleagues have been recognised. She said: “It’s not just the doctors, it’s the whole team. The administrative staff are hugely important - they’re so kind and supportive and help the doctors in training to feel welcome and part of the team.
“The person who deserves the most praise is Becky Richards, one of our senior administrators. She works so hard to get eight new starters set up with HR and IT every six months so they can start working as a doctor from day one. We all work very hard and it’s great our efforts have been recognised.”
Dr Emma Bradley, Consultant Paediatrician at Sirona, added: “It’s a real marker of the attention that is given by everyone in the Community Paediatric teams to the education of our doctors in training, and the effort that goes into ensuring we are training the paediatricians of the future.
“A massive thanks to Tamsin, our college tutor, who organises and oversees all their training, and also to everyone in the departments as it is the welcome and commitment to training that comes from absolutely everyone the doctors interact with - receptionists, admin teams, allied health professionals, all the doctors and everyone else - that make Sirona such a good place to train.”
Lorraine McMullen, Interim Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Sirona, said: “I am delighted the fantastic work of the Community Paediatrics team has been recognised for the second year running.
The team of paediatricians is committed to ensuring the junior doctors on placement to Sirona receive the best possible training experience.
The ratings show what a great training environment Sirona is and will consistently offer and we are extremely proud of the whole team for making our junior doctors feel so welcome and supported.”
Alison Wint, Sirona’s Interim Medical Director, added: “These ratings show what a great learning experience we offer to junior doctors at Sirona. Congratulations to the whole team for their continued commitment to training.”