People in Fife have a unique opportunity to help shape the training of medical students working in the Kingdom’s hospitals and local communities.
Earlier this year NHS Fife and the University of St Andrews announced the development of a new medical degree programme which would allow students to complete their clinical training and primary medical qualification here in Fife. This followed the Scottish Parliament removing a historic prohibition that had prevented the University of St Andrews from awarding its own medical qualifications.
The new Scottish Community Orientated Medicine programme, or ScotCOM as it is better known, is intended to provide a unique approach to medical education and prepare doctors-in-training for the challenges associated with providing modern healthcare.
The five-year programme will see medical students train to provide specialist care in a range of settings, with a focus on community-based clinical teaching to help provide students with a comprehensive understanding of primary care services, whilst ensuring exposure and understanding of hospital-based care.
Ahead of the start of the ScotCOM course next year, people in Fife are being asked to help shape the new course. A survey has been developed which aims to capture the priorities of local people when they receive care and treatment, and the attributes they value most in the medical staff they see. The survey is available to complete online at: www.nhsfife.org/ScotCOM. Paper copies can also be obtained by email at: HSCP.ParticipationEngagement@fife.gov.uk.
The feedback received will then be used to shape the course materials, ensuring the next generation of doctors have the opportunity to learn from the same communities that they will train and likely work in.
Dr Kimberly Steel is a consultant in palliative medicine and is leading the ScotCOM programme in NHS Fife in her role as Associate Director of Medical Education. Dr Steel said: “The new ScotCOM degree programme is unique and will help us ensure that the training offered to medical students in Fife best prepares them for working in local communities, where an ever-greater proportion of care is now provided.
“People in Fife have a really important role to play in helping us to develop the programme. We want to hear people’s experience of healthcare and what matters most to them in their interactions with medical staff. This feedback will be used to shape the course and will help ensure the programme provides the most comprehensive and well-rounded education for our medical students.”
The development of the ScotCOM programme is a key element of the formal partnership agreed between NHS Fife and the University of St Andrews, which was announced in March 2024. The partnership sees collaboration across a range of areas, including clinical teaching and research, environmental sustainability, the mutual use of estates and buildings, and a joint effort to help reduce ill-health and inequality within our local population.
NHS Fife medical director, Dr Christopher McKenna, added: “Our partnership with the University of St Andrews is hugely significant and ScotCOM is a great example of where we can work collaboratively to improve the care we can provide to people in Fife.
“The programme will work toward addressing local and regional healthcare needs, have a focus on the social determinants of health and create skilled highly trained doctors, who are uniquely prepared to deliver the high quality care people expect from the NHS.”
Notes to Editors:
- Fife Health & Social Care Partnership is delivering this consultation on behalf of NHS Fife and the University of St Andrews. All information will be anonymised, and individuals will not be identified.
