HEIW is accountable to the General Medical Council (GMC) as the regulator for the quality of postgraduate medical education and training.
The Quality Management System (QMS) is an organisational wide approach which guides us in monitoring training quality. Feedback is at the very centre of the system and is essential in enabling us to identify training concerns and this information is used to work with providers to manage improvements.
There are several ways to give feedback on your training including the annual GMC National Training Surveys: end of placement feedback, feedback via trainee representatives to the specialty, or directly to your educational supervisor, training programme director or directly to the Quality Unit. The Quality Unit has a dedicated email address for contact (heiw.open@wales.nhs.uk) and more detail can be found on this web page: Raising training concerns - HEIW.
HEIW uses your feedback to triangulate evidence across specialties and training programmes to ensure that programmes are compliant with national training standards and to be able to investigate any areas of concern and resolve any issues with training programmes.
The Medical Deanery Quality Management Risk approach is a process which enables us to resolve concerns in a proportionate manner through the targeted process. This allows local Faculty Teams to review feedback to us on initial concerns and provide action plans to support improvement as appropriate. Where concerns are persistent or more serious, we may visit departments and seek feedback both trainers and residents as well as senior staff to gain further feedback and work with departments on a focussed action plan to resolve concerns with continued monitoring. Continued feedback is essential in helping us to monitor the implementation of these action plans and understand whether improvements have been sustained in the longer term.
As well as identifying and managing training concerns we also work to ensure that there are appropriate systems and governance arrangements in place to support the delivery of high quality training. We do this through annual Joint Strategic Education and Training meetings with local education providers to facilitate strategic discussion around the number of training posts in place and to consider the educational environment.