North West Herts VTS (Hemel Hempstead)

• Location
• Hospital Posts
• Training Practices
• Educational Activities/Resources
• Highlights

Nearest Underground: - n/a
By Rail: - Kings Cross > St Albans Euston > Hemel Hempstead
By Car: - M1 > Jct 8 > A414 St Albans Road (Hemel Hempsetad) > large roundabout after 4 roundabouts > return back up St Albans Road > directions then clearly marked
Map: - Click on the link to see map

Hospital Posts

There are two separate rotations and each has four GP Registrars in post.

Rotation A has four posts, each of six months in:

Accident and Emergency
Psychiatry
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Paediatrics
These posts commence in March and September.

Rotation B has four posts, each of six months in:

Care of the Elderly
Psychiatry
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Paediatrics
These posts commence in March and September.

There is a new rotation (Rotation C) which has a six month Medical SHO post followed by 12 months as a GP Registar.

The Care of the Elderly and A&E posts are based at Hemel Hempstead Hospital. The Psychiatry post is based in St Albans. The Paediatric and Obstetric/Gynaecology posts are based at Watford Hospital". It is anticipated that the current VTS model of two years of SHO posts and one year as a GP Registrar will change to an 18 month split in August 2007. This will affect the nature and duration of the secondary care-based training from that date.

The GP Registrar year is divided into an introductory month at the beginning of training and 11 months following hospital rotation. The Training Practices are listed below:

Name:	Address:	Tel:
Dr Mark Allen & Dr. Hilary Smith	The Maltings Surgery 8 Victoria Street St. Albans Herts, AL1 3JB	Tel: 01727 855500
Dr. Mark Bevis	The Lodge Surgery Normandy Road St. Albans, AL3 5NP	Tel: 01727 853 107
Dr Jay Patel	Kings Langley Surgery The Nap Kings Langley, WD4 8ET	Tel: 01923 261035
Dr Mike Walton & Dr Ian Hamilton	Harvey House 13-15 Russell Avenue St. Albans Herts, AL3 5HB	Tel: 01727 831831
Dr Bruce Covell, Dr Roger Sage, Dr Philippa Mainwaring & Dr Jonathan Freedman	Parkbury House Surgery St. Peters Street St. Albans AL1 3HD	Tel: 01727 851 589
Dr Jon Brazier, Dr Trevor Fernandes & Dr Gary Solomons	Parkwood Drive Surgery Parkwood Drive Hemel Hempstead Herts, HP1 4LD	Tel: 01442 250117
Dr. Iain Dow	Grange Street Surgery Grange Street St. Albans AL1 5NF	Tel: 01727 851136
Dr. Peter Sweeney	The Red House 124 Watling Street Radlett	Tel: 01923 855606
DrJames Ferguson & Dr. Elin Jones	Midway Surgery 93 Watford Road St. Albans Herts, AL2 3JX	Tel: 01727 832125
Dr. Zunia Hurst & Dr Paul Heatley	Bennetts End Surgery Gatecroft Hemel Hempstead HP3 9LY	Tel: 01442 263 511
Dr Bill Bado & Dr.Helen Manton	Manor Street Surgery Manor Street Berkhamsted Herts, HP4 2DL	Tel: 01442 875 935
Dr Raj Mapara & Dr Adrian Richardson	Fernville Surgery Midland Road Hemel Hempstead HP2 5BL	Tel: 01442 213 919
Dr Harold Ha	Everest House Surgery Everest Way Hemel Hempstead HP2 4HY	Tel: 0844 477 8615
Dr Robert Walker, Dr Roger Gibbs & Dr Debbie Gilham	The Village Surgery Amenbury Lane Harpenden Herts AL5 2HX	Tel: 01582 712021

The Half Day Release course is held on Tuesday afternoons and alternates between the Postgraduate Centre at St Albans and Hemel Hempstead Hospitals. We meet every week apart from short breaks at Christmas and Easter. The GP SHOs and GP Registrars are all expected to attend. All members of the scheme are expected to be actively involved in planning, organising and evaluating each term's work. The first half of each meeting usually involves an outside speaker or a presentation by members of the group. The second part of the meeting is usually devoted to small group work. This is a supportive and often stimulating way of learning about all aspects of General Practice. The half-day course helps to prepare GP Registrars for Summative Assessment and MRCGP. We also visit training practices and other places of educational interest.

All members of the scheme are expected to attend the two day annual residential course, which is usually held in the spring. This provides the opportunity to examine medical issues in greater depth and for the group to get to know each other.

GP Registrars are encouraged to attend out-patient clinics in appropriate specialties. This is particularly useful in Dermatology, Ophthalmology and ENT.

Educational Resources

There are well equipped postgraduate centres with well stocked medical libraries at both Hemel Hempstead and St Albans City Hospitals. Both have good access to IT including on-line Cochrane Library and PubMed. The Postgraduate Library and Information manager is extremely helpful and has run courses for our VTS on IT for GP Registrars.

Small group work as part of a supportive and reflective half day release course

Annual Residential Course

Dermatology teaching

Family Planning, Child Health Surveillance and Minor Surgery courses

Evolving range of options for extended training in Dermatology, Palliative Care & GU Medicine

Preparation for Summative Assessment, DCH, DRCOG and MRCGP

Dr Bruce Covell runs an MRCGP Study Group for ten weeks twice each year.

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