St George’s rated best training unit in London for paediatric doctors
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as the best training unit in the Capital for paediatric doctors by the London School of Paediatrics, on behalf of Health Education England.
St George’s was rated top of the 32 units in London, which collectively help to train over one thousand trainee paediatric doctors each year.
The team at St George’s took top prize in the ‘Best Training Unit’ category at the Paediatric Awards for Training Achievements (PAFTA) held on Thursday, 26 January at the Annual School Conference.
The award – which was voted for by trainee doctors – is a significant achievement for the paediatric service at St George’s, which provides a wide range of core and specialist services for children.
St George’s has a dedicated paediatric Emergency Department, which sees over 28,000 patients per annum. The Trust also sees 15,000 paediatric patients in outpatients, and more than 6,000 paediatric patients are admitted to St George’s for treatment every year.
The wide range of paediatric services St George’s delivers, says Dr Jonathan Round, Director of Medical Education at the Trust and consultant IN paediatric intensive care, provides a fantastic environment within which aspiring trainee doctors can succeed:
“The whole team here at St George’s has worked extremely hard to create a culture within which our trainee doctors can thrive. Our trainees play a crucial role in delivering a service for patients day in, day out – and, in return, we work hard to ensure they get the training and education opportunities they need.”
Dr Round continued: “This award from Health Education England is a huge pat on the back for everyone in the team, and particular credit is due to Dr Atefa Hossain, who as college tutor oversees the training for our juniors in paediatrics.”
Dr Elizabeth Boot, 33, is a paediatric registrar and has been working as a trainee doctor at St George’s on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) since September last year. She said:
“I really enjoy working at St George’s. The staff are fantastic, but so are the training opportunities on offer. Given the wide range of services the Trust provides, we get to see and treat a wide range of conditions, including rarer disorders that you don’t get to see in every hospital. As a result, I get to learn new skills, whilst also consolidating those I have already gained – and this is done through standard teaching, but also bedside input from consultants, which is as important.”
