Who are the providers of postgraduate medical education?

The view, background and motivation of providers of medical education was studied using a structured questionnaire which was sent to all those who organized courses for the Postgraduate Education Allowance in the West of Scotland. Two hundred and twenty-five replies were received from 254 course providers, giving an 88.6% response rate; 51.8% of course providers were general practitioners, 24.1% hospital consultants, 2% were from the pharmaceutical industry, 3.6% from commercial companies, 2.6% health board administrators, 1% general practitioners also running commercial companies, 14.9% others. Only 29.3% had training for organizing courses, although 68.7% thought special training was important. 43% used a combination of GPs and hospital consultants at their courses and a considerable number continued to organize lecture style courses. 32.8% used pre-course material and 50.7% used post-course assessment. 21.5% of providers had to provide their own secretarial back-up. The provision of continuing medical education is haphazard. The new contract has increased the amount of education available without addressing the needs of the providers. Proper training, planning and evaluation of courses, adequate funding, protected time and good secretarial back-up are required for good, meaningful and relevant continuing medical education.