Bill Harvey: Bad motor scooter

I attended an excellent peer discussion event last week. The College were trialling a new format, whereby individual cases were discussed requiring participants to differentially diagnose, each interspersed with expert views presented on video. Great format, very relevant – I expect to see more of these.

That said, the real issue of debate among delegates was clearly the proposed apprenticeship qualification. A non-scientific snapshot of practitioners from either multiple or independent backgrounds seemed overwhelmingly against the proposal. Indeed, I am yet to hear much in favour from colleagues seeing patients. One main concern always raised is the maintenance of independence from commercial pressures – this will be tricky if trainees are under contract to one single employer throughout their entire qualification period. The online petition to reject the scheme now has over 12,000 signatories.