Thanks to everyone who returned the questionnaire that I recently distributed to all GPs in the Borders. There was a high response rate with 64 out of the 87 GPs returning their questionnaires (74%) and 21 out of the 22 practices being represented (95%). The following bar charts illustrate the percentage of GPs who expressed an interest in more information or education for each topic.

Your views on what sort of educational format, location and audience you would prefer were also sought. The results are illustrated. There was a very strong preference for educational meetings taking the format of small group discussion or case presentation and a definite lack of enthusiasm for the traditional lecture.

GPs were also strongly in favour of meetings being more locally based - those indicating a preference for meetings at BGH Education Centre were mostly from practices situated relatively close to the hospital. Interestingly 73% of GPs expressed a preference for meetings with a multidisciplinary audience and only 14% for a GP only audience.

Over the next two years we therefore intend to organise a series of meetings for multidisciplinary audiences around the format of case presentation/small group discussion. For the most part it is intended that meetings will be locally based throughout the Borders though, occasionally, some meetings may have to be based centrally. Topics covered will reflect the preferences expressed in the survey.

It is hoped that you will find education sessions more useful and relevant as a result of trying to tailor them to your preferences. All sessions will be evaluated to see how successful this has been. The results should be useful in helping to inform the planning of future postgraduate education in the Borders.

Paul Cormie

Macmillan GP Facilitator

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www.in-touch.org.uk : Scottish Borders Palliative Care & Macmillan GPFacilitator Information Site. Last updated 12 November 2001 by Paul Cormie, Lead GP, Borders Palliative Care Network.