The Hospitals
The Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
Your base in Reading will be the Royal Berkshire Hospital and you will not be required to move in order to complete your psychiatry attachment at Prospect Park. While there on call you will be provided with suitable accommodation.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital (791 beds) contains the Trust Education Centre. The "Berks" is a busy General Hospital and contains all specialities except Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurological Surgery but there are links to Oxford where these services are provided
The Priority Care Trust is responsible for Prospect Park Hospital which is approximately 4 miles from Reading central, contains acute and long stay psychiatric beds.
The hospital posts at ST level are recognised for DCH and DRCOG and all are busy service posts with good teaching and relevant experience for general practice. During the four ST posts you will receive a logbook which details the areas you might wish to experience in each particular specialty and allows you to record your achievements and plans for extending your education at a later date.
You should collect the logbook from the Course Organisers at the Trust Education Centre when you start on the scheme, as there will be an induction session for you with them when you can ask all questions about your GP training. You should take your log book to any meetings you have with your trainer or specialty tutor as it will help you when you come to plan your tutorial programme in the general practice year. It is appropriate to apply for general practice related study leave out of the Postgraduate Budget to an annual limit, having sought approval from your Consultant and Course Organiser.
Trust Education Centre, Royal Berkshire Hospital
This Centre provides education and social facilities for all medical and dental practitioners in the West Berkshire District. The amenities include a lecture theatre with full audio-visual aids, seminar rooms, common room (used as an informal lecture theatre) and a comprehensive library with search and word processing
facilities and Internet links. The refectory provides luncheon and light refreshments between 12.00 and 2.00 pm and there is a squash court if you wish to burn off some calories.
In addition to the VTS, a wide programme of postgraduate medical education is arranged at the Centre by the Clinical Tutor, his consultant colleagues and various medical societies.