Surgical training posts in Northern Ireland: assessment by surgeons in training.

Northern Ireland has one of the largest surgical training programmes in the United Kingdom. The surgical trainees' assessment of the quality of training provided has been collated prospectively since 1983, and provides a useful insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the programme, as well as the training value of individual posts. The overall quality of clinical training in surgery was considered to be well above average, but some registrars felt that supervision of operative surgery could be improved. Clinical research was considered to be of average quality in the teaching hospitals but below average in district general hospitals. In the current climate of restriction of the number of training posts in general surgery, the views of the trainees should not be neglected in assessing which posts are best suited for training.