Foreword

Welcome to the October edition of our Deanery Newsletter!

As Autumn is drawing in and the nights and mornings are getting darker and colder. For those of you new to Scotland the short days will be a surprise; it is even more important to ensure you get a break in the daylight regularly through the week.   

In our newsletter we try to ensure we have a varied menu of what is on offer, what have resident doctors in training done and what can you consider for the future. We also try to ensure we cater for our amazing educators—without whom we wouldn’t be able to support the resident doctor in training workforce.

The new training year sees a return of our series of resident doctor webinars led by the NES Medical Senior team on the next one is on 4 November. The event is for resident doctors to meet the NES Medical Senior Team and discuss issues pertinent to Resident Doctors in Training. We hope you can make it.

The workshop was developed in response to the Working Party of Sexual Misconduct in Surgery Report published in September 2023, which showed that over 80% of people working in surgery have witnessed a colleague being the target of sexual misconduct and 3 in 10 women working in surgery have been sexually assaulted by a colleague. This workshop has been designed by resident doctors in training and educators and aims to give participants a toolkit to deploy should they witness or experience these unacceptable behaviors.

Are you a GP registrar and uncertain what you want to do when you complete training? One exciting option worth highlighting is the Scottish GP Rural Fellowship—a one-year post-CCT programme designed to immerse newly qualified GPs. The next item gives information and testimonials regarding this excellent opportunity.

Or are you a resident doctor in training who has innovative ideas on how AI will improve patient care or working lives? The AI fellowship may be what you are looking for. You can read about the experience of this year’s fellows in the newsletter.

Next, we have an article highlighting a new set of webinars, A day in the life of a busy General Practice. This is a series of 10 new webinars being held between now and March 2026. The series will cover common clinical topics with the latest advice on their management within primary care. Please have a look.

NES Knowledge Services NES Knowledge services’ extremely popular Finding Information series will be running again every Tuesday from 21 October to 25 November. If you work in health and social care in Scotland, you need access to an up-to-date quality assured evidence base. Join us for our bitesize lunch and learn webinars to help you find that evidence

Are you worried about your training experience? Do you have concerns about your safety or that of your colleagues? Unsure of who to speak to? The NES Quality team are here to help with this and we give details of how to get help. Here is the link for Notifications of Concern: Report a concern | Scotland Deanery

There resources to refer to are the ScotMT recruitment website: Scottish Medical Training

MDRS held a webinar recently regarding applying for UK recruitment and I’ve just added the link to the recording of it on the ScotMT website—Specialty Recruitment | Scottish Medical Training. The direct link to the recording is here Specialty recruitment webinar | Medical Hub

Also Scotland applicant guides and details of changes for 2026 recruitment are listed on the Applicant Guidance page on ScotMT—Applicant Guidance | Scottish Medical Training

There is also further help available from the Trainee Development and Wellbeing Service: Trainee Development and Wellbeing Service | Scotland Deanery

Finally, the dates of the 2026 NES Conference have been announced for 23 and 24 April. We are looking for seminar, open paper and poster abstract submissions. I hope you can make time and get involved in this fantastic, free online event. 

Remember to keep submitting articles or suggestions for content, take care and take breaks.

I hope you enjoy this edition.

If you have work you would like to highlight in this newsletter, contact Scotland Deanery: https://www.scotlanddeanery.nhs.scot/contact.

Professor Emma Watson
Executive Medical Director, NHS Education for Scotland