Pre-registration posts in psychiatry

I was intrigued to read the article by Herzberg and colleagues about pre-registration posts in psychiatry (Psychiatric Bulletin, 27, 192-194). It was I who established the Sheffield rotations in 1981, as described by Jane O’Dwyer. It was a fortunate time because there were extra house officers requiring posts, so two pairs of far-sighted physicians and surgeons who had extra posts agreed to include the second one into the experimental scheme of four monthly rotations in medicine, surgery and psychiatry at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.

The issue that worried me about these rotations was that while many psychiatrists praised the idea, no one ever copied it. I began to wonder whether I had introduced a group of Sheffield graduates to a life fraught with difficulties as they tried to live down the disgrace of their pre-registration. Luckily, I have just received evidence to the contrary.

With six doctors a year for over 20 years, it is perhaps not statistically surprising that on the day I received the Bulletin, I also received an invitation to attend the Inaugural Lecture to be delivered by Professor Tony Avery, Head of Division of Primary Care at the University of Nottingham. Tony was in one of the earliest rotations.