In 2002 the acorn surgery became recognised by the East of England Deanery as a Training Practice.  Doctors who want to become GPs continue their training with us and work at the Practice as part of this training.  We also have medical, nursing, health visitor and pharmacy students at the Practice as part of their specific professional training. The East of England Multi-Professional Deanery is the regional centre for excellence.  Its role is to support the education and development of all clinical professionals, quality assure education, training and development and lead on educational research.

The acorn is a training practice involved in advanced training of GP Registrars who are fully qualified Doctors. They are required to spend a year with specially qualified general practitioners before going into practice on their own.  All of our GP Partners are fully qualified GP Trainers and we hope you will accept our Registrars an extra extension of our own services to you.

We are also a centre for training medical students from Cambridge University Medical School. We have medical students in the practice and have been very grateful for the co-operation of our patients in giving students experience in dealing with medical problems.  When you come to the surgery, you may be asked if you would mind having a medical student or training grade Doctor present during your consultation.  We will always ask your permission first and you are fully entitled to say "no".

If you are offered an appointment with one of our training Doctors, you can be assured that they are supported by one of our regular Doctors and are fully qualified to see patients. They are often popular as they are allocated longer appointment times to see patients. As a Practice we believe that teaching and training are important to bring on the next generation of Doctors.  It also helps to keep us (and our patients!) on our toes, with new ideas from training and from hospital medicine. Our Doctors are part of the Huntingdon VTS Scheme, Click Here for more information.

Research

The Practice has contributed to a number of research programmes. We belong to a group of practices who undertake research via the Primary Care Research Network under the jurisdiction of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Some of our research projects have involved patient participation which, is of course, entirely voluntary and we would like to thank those of you who have, and continue to, support us with these and other projects.