Posted on: 19 November 2020
A consultant psychiatrist who has helped nurture the next generation of doctors and turned his area into a popular training option for junior doctors is today named as the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Psychiatric Educator of the Year at their annual awards event.
Dr Alex Thomson was officially presented with this title during the College’s annual awards event – this year online due to Covid.
Junior doctors have to undertake six-month rotations in different departments as part of their training.
As Local Tutor, Dr Thomson has ensured that Northwick Park Hospital and Harrow Community Mental Health Services are consistently filled “first choice” placements for local trainees.
He has done this by ensuring the support of consultant supervisor colleagues, attending to out of hours working patterns, improving induction and the academic programme. This has led to an expansion in the number of local training posts in psychiatry.
Now he is committed to making sure he is developing the next generation of doctors through his support for foundation, core training, GP vocational training, and higher training in adult, old age and learning disability psychiatry.
Dr Thomson said: “Receiving this award means a lot to me. This represents the hard work and dedication of so many people who have supported, inspired and worked with me over my career. From my own supervisors and mentors, to colleagues, including clinical supervisors, postgraduate training staff, and all others who create a positive local environment for education, and the support from my wonderful family and friends.
“As well as thanking all of those who have supported me, above all I would like to thank the junior doctors who have chosen to work in this area, and the patients whom we serve. After all, the value of clinical education is to create a positive environment for delivering excellent care, to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience.”
Dr Thomson’s achievements in clinical education include developing a national e-Learning for Health multi-professional training module on emergency department psychiatry, and developing and editing online training materials, to ensure a “paper-free” induction programme, with trainee-created materials constantly accessible on their smartphones via the Dr Toolbox app.
He has also supported the local trainee representatives to secure funding and lead on an ongoing refurbishment programme for local rest, break and office facilities.
As Clinical Network Lead for Psychological Medicine, Dr Thomson also created and led a quality improvement network during which he delivered monthly half-day interactive interprofessional masterclasses to build QI capacity across six acute hospitals.