Patient safety and public
involvement in
undergraduate medical
education
Kate Gregory, Joint Head of Quality GMC
Plan for the session
We have 50 minutes…
Any points in particular you would like covered?
How is the GMC involved in undergraduate education?
What does the GMC say about patient and public
involvement in medical education?
What do we consider to be effective practice?
Questions?
How we quality assure undergraduate education

Quality assurance - responsibility of GMC. Overarching activity under which both quality
management and quality control sit. Includes all the policies, standards, systems and processes
that are in place to maintain and improve the quality of UK medical education and training.

Quality management - responsibility of medical schools. Refers to the processes through
which these bodies ensure that the training their medical students are receiving from local
education providers (LEPs), such as NHS trusts, meets the GMC's standards.

Quality control – joint responsibility of LEPs and medical schools. Ensuring that the education
they are providing meets local, national and professional standards.
Quality improvement framework
The Quality improvement framework (QIF) sets out how the
GMC quality assures (QAs) medical education and training in
the UK. How this applies to undergraduate education:


Approval against standards:
•
new institutions to deliver undergraduate medical
education or the decoupling of institutions which
previously jointly delivered it
•
medical schools are required to submit annual reports
setting out their activity against the relevant
standards, outcomes and requirements of
Tomorrow’s Doctors.
Visits:
•
to all medical schools and deaneries in a geographical
region to make judgements about each individual
organisation and to get a picture of education and
training in that area
•
to new UK medical schools or programmes outside
the UK that want to be able to award a UK PMQ.
Quality improvement framework (cont)


Response to concerns may be raised through a number of
sources, including:
•
evidence arising from visits to medical schools
•
themes from the national trainee/trainer survey data
•
indicators derived from annual reports provided by
medical schools
•
information from other bodies and stakeholders
•
concerns raised by trainees, trainers or others in the
training community, by patients and/or the public.
Shared evidence drawn from reports from medical schools,
surveys, visit reports and response to concerns is used to:
•
identify areas of risk that warrant further investigation
•
triangulate evidence provided by different stakeholders
and check whether it is consistent and comparable
•
enable us to fulfil our statutory function of approving
and monitoring training through a range of evidence
•
identify trends and lead to thematic QA activity by the
regulator, inclusion of new items in the training surveys
and targeted checks.
GMC standards and guidance for patient and
public involvement in medical education
The GMC has set standards for education and training that
require patient and public involvement (PPI).
• Tomorrow’s Doctors (TD) puts patients at the heart of
undergraduate education and requires doctors to learn to
work in partnership with patients.
• The TD supplementary advice ‘Patient and public involvement
in undergraduate medical education’ sets out further advice
for medical schools together with examples of notable
practice.
• The Trainee Doctor requires deaneries active and meaningful
involvement and engagement of stakeholders, including
patients, in postgraduate training
GMC guidance: Patient and public involvement in
undergraduate medical education
Patients can contribute unique and invaluable expertise to
teaching, feedback and assessment of medical students,
which should be encouraged and facilitated.
GMC guidance: Patient and public involvement in
undergraduate medical education
Medical schools should ensure that a variety of innovative
approaches to patient and public involvement and
support is used, depending on the nature and purpose of
involvement. This would ensure that different
experiences and areas of expertise of the local population
are utilised, including groups that are usually hard to
reach.
GMC guidance: Patient and public involvement in
undergraduate medical education
Patients or lay people should be appropriately prepared
for the role they are invited to perform. Medical schools
should ensure that individuals understand and are
comfortable with their role, know the expected outcomes
of and consent to the encounter, and know who to
contact if they find it difficult to continue.
GMC standards: The Trainee Doctor
The deanery/LETB must ensure active and meaningful
involvement and engagement of key stakeholders:
trainees, trainers, patients, and the service or employer.
Effective practice in patient and public involvement
in medical education
A large number of examples of effective practice in our
supplementary guidance
A few pertinent ones in the context of general practice:
•
Leeds Medical School: Patient Learning Journey
programme and Patient Voice Group
•
Sheffield Medical School: Patients as Educators
•
St George’s: use of expert patients in teaching
•
Warwick Medical School: Learning from Lives
Questions?