During Phase 4 of the Medical Appraiser Training we carried out the last of the one-day Experienced Appraiser Training Courses on 8 April 2014 in Edinburgh.  These courses were aimed at Secondary Care Appraisers already carrying out appraisals in their Health Board but who had not attended a NES Training course.  We also ran 6 New Medical Appraiser Training Courses and 5 Refresher Medical Appraiser Training courses across Scotland. The Refresher Medical Appraiser Training courses were targeted at Appraisers who had originally trained more than 5 years ago (mainly GPs) but are open to both GP and Secondary Care Appraisers.  As before, the 2-day New Medical Appraiser Training Courses have a maximum of 18 participants while the 1-day Experienced and 1-day Refresher Medical Appraiser Training Courses are run with a maximum of 24 participants per course.

Numbers on the New Medical Appraiser Training Courses

We successfully trained 79 Doctors for Secondary Care and 28 GPs for Primary Care.  Rigorous chase up of Participants by NES and good use of course Waiting Lists ensured that there were only 7 unused places on the New Medical Appraiser Training Courses. We had 3 drop outs shortly before Day 1 of the training courses and 2 drop outs on Day 1.  2 participants did not manage to attend Day 2 of the January Course due to snow.

Of these 7 drop outs, 2 have withdrawn from the training, 3 have to be reassigned to another course when we hear back from them, 1 successfully attended a later course and 1 is booked on a future course.

The following table sums up the attendance at the courses, which shows only 1 training course which had 100% attendance.

There was very positive feedback from participants at the New Medical Appraiser Training Courses.  In answer to the question ‘What was the most valuable aspect of the course?’ some of the replies included:

We successfully trained 17 Secondary Care doctors.  The following table sums up the attendance at the course.

This was the last Experienced Medical Appraiser Training Course that ran.  Although this course can run with 24 participants, the maximum number of applications we had was 18.  There was 1 late drop out.  This course was held in Edinburgh, which is a popular venue.

However, even with a chase up by the Local Appraisal Lead in Lothian, this course ran well below capacity.

This seems to indicate that this was an opportune time to terminate the Experienced Medical Appraiser Training Courses.

There was again very positive feedback from the participants at the Experienced Medical Appraiser Training Course.  In answer to the question ‘What was the most valuable aspect of the course?’ some of the replies included:

Getting cross specialty perspective. Getting feedback for mini appraisal. Getting tips on skills/how to be more constructively challenging.”

Mini appraisals and discussions. Meeting other consultants from different specialties. Building confidence in appraisal skills.”

Mini appraisals and tutor's comments done immediately.”

Both R1 and R2 had maximum attendance.  We had 1 dropout from R3 two days before the course so the place could not be reallocated.  This doctor went on to attend R7.  The R4 course caused the most problems.  We did have 24 participants allocated at one time to this course.  However even with our stringent chase up of participants and help from the Local Administrator for Appraisal at NHS Tayside we only managed to run the course with 17 participants.

Of these drop outs for this course, 1 attended R6, 5 attended R7, for 5 we are awaiting alternative dates, and 3 dropped out of a future assigned course and we are awaiting another alternative date.  All bar one of these participants was from NHS Tayside.  For R5, we only ever had 13 applicants for this course based in Dumfries & Galloway and had 1 early drop out from NHS Lanarkshire.

Numbers on the Refresher Medical Appraiser Training Course

We successfully trained 27 GPs and 73 SC doctors.  The following table sums up the attendance at the courses.

There was again very positive feedback from the participants at the Refresher Medical Appraiser Training Course.  In answer to the question ‘What was the most valuable aspect of the course?’ some of the replies were as follows:

Unused places from the New, Experienced and Refresher Training Courses

During FY 2014/15, there were 34 unused spaces on the New, Experienced and Refresher Medical Appraiser Training Courses.  The unused places are caused by late call offs or non attendance on the day of the courses.  The reasons for the unused spaces are summarised beneath each of the course types above.  This has led to most of the courses running below capacity.  When an application for an Appraiser course comes in we allocate the doctor to the next available, relevant course.  Doctors have a choice of 3 course dates.  We need to allocate or reallocate doctors to courses allowing enough time for them to complete the pre-course work.  We also keep Waiting Lists for courses.

Eight weeks before the course, the doctor receives a reminder confirmation of their allocation to their course.  A ‘Participants Attendance and Coursework Confirmation Form’ is now sent out as an attachment to this email.  We ask participants to complete the form and return it to us and to let us know ASAP if they cannot now attend.  This allows us to reallocate any places that become available.

Four weeks before the training course, another email is sent detailing the pre-course work and information.  Again the ‘Participants Attendance and Coursework Confirmation Form’ is attached to the email with the proviso that if they have not completed the form already they need to do so now.  If there are any forms that have not arrived between 2 and 3 weeks before the course, these participants are again chased up by email for a reply.  We have had call offs at this time and if it is within approximately 2 weeks before the course, we can still, usually, reallocate the place(s).  This rigorous chase up of participants and the keeping of Waiting Lists has helped to reduce the number of unused places from 46 last year to 34 this year.

There is homework required before the courses, and between Day 1 and Day 2 of the New Appraiser training courses.

Extra Medical Appraiser training during FY 2014/15

NES was proactive in responding to local Health Board requirements.

NES was asked to provide an extra New Medical Appraiser Training course for NHS Lanarkshire, as they were very low on GP Appraisers. This course took place on 25 April and 2 May 2014 at Law House Learning Centre, Law House, Airdrie Road, Carluke ML8 5ER. We successfully trained 9 GP Appraisers for Lanarkshire and 9 SC Appraisers – 8 for Lanarkshire and 1 for Lothian.

The New Appraiser Training Course on 21 & 29 August 2014 was due to run with 24 participants (23 final number).  Again NES responded to pressure for extra training places on this course as the next New Medical Appraiser Training Course was not scheduled until January 2015. However, 18 is the optimal number for running a New Appraiser Training Course well, as was confirmed from this training course.

During FY 2014/15 we have successfully trained 169 Secondary Care doctors to be appraisers.  79 attended a New course, 73 attended a Refresher course and 17 attended an Experienced course.  The spread across the Health Boards is summarised below:

Primary Care Appraisers

We trained 28 new GP Appraisers and 27 GP Appraisers attended a Refresher course this year. 
The distribution over Health Boards is shown below:

We continue to keep up the required supply of new GP Appraisers to the Health Boards, as required.  We are now training established GP appraisers on the Refresher Medical Appraiser Training courses to augment their appraisal skills as it can have been quite a few years since these GPs attended their original training.

GP Appraisers undertake around 22 Appraisals per session.  The number of appraisers, appraisees and appraisals undertaken, per Health Board, is summed up for GPs and Secondary Care doctors in tables under Appendix A and B.