TSNews July 2013 - Spotlight on...Andy Heeps

Describe your role as chair of the Academy Trainee Doctors' Group

It is twofold. I chair the meetings of the presidents and chairs of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges' Trainee Doctors' Group four times a year and, with the Academy Clinical Fellow, I co-ordinate our work and represent the views of trainees to the Academy Council. In addition to this I sit on the Medical Professionals Board at Health Education England, and I also sit on the GMC Education and Training Advisory Board, although that role is in a personal capacity. In my spare time, I'm an 'Obs & Gynae' registrar in North London.

What do you see as being the main challenges and opportunities for medical training?

The traditional role of the trainee, to provide service and to staff on-call rotas, is becoming increasingly less appropriate, as the number of trainees reduces in line with workforce planning requirements. The European Working Time Directive has in places led to lazy rota design that pushes too much of a trainee's time into out-of-hours service.

Service reconfiguration provides us with an opportunity to design services that are focused around the twin goals of high quality patient care and excellent training. Seven day consultant presence will let us deliver high quality training around the clock.