Surgical training in primary care: consensus recommendations by the Association of Surgeons in Training

Health service reconfigurations may result in increasing numbers of minor surgical procedures migrating from secondary care in hospitals to primary care in the community. Procedures may be performed by General Practitioners with a specialist interest in Surgery, or secondary care Surgeons who are sub-contracted to perform procedures in the community. Surgical training in such procedures, which are currently hospital based, may therefore be adversely affected unless surgical training also takes advantage of these opportunities. There is potential for surgical trainees to benefit from training in the community setting. ASiT supports the development of formal surgical training in the community setting for junior surgical trainees, providing high standards of patient care and training provision are ensured. Anticipated problems relating to the migration of surgical services to the community relate to the availability and quality assurance of training opportunities in primary care, its funding, including exposure to issues of indemnity cover for trainees, and also the release of surgical trainees from hospital duties in order to attend these training opportunities. These consensus recommendations set out a framework through which both patient care and training remain at the forefront of these continued service reconfigurations.