Pennine Care named in top ten Trust’s for trainees

Foundation doctors have voted Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust as one of the top ten mental health trusts in the country for overall satisfaction in the annual General Medical Council survey.

Pennine Care, a mental health and community services trust, offers psychiatric placements for doctors in postgraduate training across its adult, older people’s and child and adolescent mental health services.

Foundation Year One and Foundation Year Two doctors gave feedback during the General Medical Council’s National Training Survey. Trainees are asked to rate their placement providers on 15 areas, including education supervision, workload, induction, clinical supervision, supportive environment, Trust reporting systems and overall satisfaction.

The survey results showed Pennine Care as being among the top ten mental health trusts for overall postgraduate training satisfaction.

Dr Nihal Fernando, Director of Medical Education at Pennine Care, said: “It’s so important to invest properly in the next cohort of medical professionals and ensure they have the support and guidance they need to do well in their placements and achieve their potential.

“We hope that by offering a supportive educational environment, along with valuable hands on experience, we play a role in ensuring high quality psychiatric placements and consultants of the future. Receiving feedback of this nature is fantastic – we’re really pleased to hear our posts offer this level of support and training. It is a true reflection of the quality and dedication of our supervising consultants as well as the Medical Education Team who coordinate and look to respond to concerns in a timely way.”

The survey news comes just weeks after Pennine Care invested further in the support it offers postgraduate training, with the appointment of a dedicated Foundation and Careers Tutor.

Dr Sahana Olety, who is a consultant in the child and adolescent mental health service Healthy Young Minds Tameside, will be developing a strategy for careers guidance to support doctors of all grades in her new role as careers lead for the Trust.

She will provide opportunities for doctors to talk about their career needs and signpost them to specialised information, advice and career champions and senior educators within the Trust.