A "general professional training" inquiry.

AN IMPORTANT recommendation of the Royal Commission on Medical Education was the institution of a 3-year period of general professional training to follow the pre-registration year. Such a scheme would have certain advantages and would follow the pattern of postgraduate education in some other countries. It would, however, pose considerable difficulties in terms of implementation, and it has met with criticism on a number of grounds, for example, the prolongation of training for general practice and the fear that some direction of labour might be implied. No firm decisions have yet been taken about the future pattern of postgraduate education in this country. Whatever plans are made, however, it has become increasingly apparent that the feelings and opinions of junior hospital doctors themselves are important and quite properly must be taken into account. In the Sheffield Region it was felt to be desirable to assess the feasibility of introducing the changes proposed by the Royal Commission, in terms of the numbers of training posts that would be required in relation to the existing establishment and work load (Dixon et al., to be published), and in terms of the reactions of the people involved in the process of acquiring postgraduate education. For this latter reason we decided to distribute a questionnaire in our region. We have attempted to frame the questions and analyse the replies in the context of the Royal Commission recommendations, while at the same time trying to provide background information which might be of value in considering alternative proposals. Seven hundred and sixty-seven questionnaires were distributed to all the SHOs (342), Registrars