The General Practice Zone was funded by Health Education East Midlands in partnership with The University of Nottingham, University of Leicester and Derby and Derbyshire LMC. Taking part were eight primary healthcare professionals and 12 schools in the East Midlands.
Philly is a Foundation Year 2 doctor at Chesterfield Royal Hospital who hopes to become a GP, Nicola is a Deputy Practice Manager for a surgery in Chesterfield, and Jo and Lucy are both in their final year of GP training at a practice in Leicestershire. Jamie, Gail and Cat are GPs working in Wolverhampton, Derbyshire and Newark, Amanda is a practice nurse for a surgery in Derby and Adil is a fourth year medical student at Nottingham University.
March’s General Practice Zone was the busiest of all the I’m a Medic events we have run so far, with nearly 370 students logging in and 16 live chats. This was the first time we had teams taking part, with Jo and Lucy taking part as a duo, and Cat sharing her login with colleagues at her practice to take part in chats she was unavailable for. This was to support professionals in making more chat sessions and to give students a wider range of professionals to meet. We also continued the Admissions Officer role, an expert on university admissions who could add comments with supporting information on students’ questions about applying to medical school.