This year's Winterwatch on BBC2 comes from the Mar Lodge Estate on Deeside, Grampian. The program is on nightly this week at 8pm Monday to Wednesday and 9pm on Thursday. So why not watch it and get a feel for some of the fantastic wildlife opportunities open to you in the Cairngorms. This whole areas is within easy reach for those on both the Grampian and Caledonian schemes.
If you are interested in wildlife or life in the mountains, there is only one place to be, so come to the North of Scotland!
There are many exciting new developments occurring in Grampian at present. Not only did the new Emergency Care Centre open in Aberdeen this year - we now the
new Aberdeen Community Health Village. This will house many community based services in
Aberdeen including the Musculoskeletal Hub, Sexual Health clinics, Geriatric
clinics, Pain clinics, Cardiology clinics to name but a few. This will provide
an excellent opportunity for community based learning for both trainees and
established GPs.
We hope to develop clinical attachments with a number of the clinics. The musculoskeletal hub will enable us to provide much more GP focussed musculoskeletal training than was previously provided in the orthopaedic posts in our scheme.
Read about Anne Rennie's experiences of moving to the North of Scotland for her GP training.
"I moved to Inverness in August for my GP training and being only 5 months into it I wouldn't change a thing! Initially, adapting to life in a much smaller city was difficult, especially being in a GP practice for my first rotation as there were only 2 other trainees. However, it didn't take long for me to feel part of the team at the practice and to meet other trainees at the local education days. Everyone is very friendly in this part of the world!
Why not try something different at New Year- the Stonehaven Fireballs Festival! Stonehaven is a small seaside village in the North East of Scotland with a population of 10,000 and hosts an annual festival at New Year attracting around 5000 visitors from home and abroad.
The fireball swinging ceremony is pretty spectacular: 45 men and women swinging massive balls of flame around their heads as they stride the length of Stonehaven’s old High Street. The reception given to the swingers is tremendous and the occasion is a very family oriented event, even if it does start at midnight, with a pipe band, drummers and other entertainment. And a very humorous and lively crowd of people!
The Market Street Party runs in tandem with this world famous Fireballs ceremony making New Year a hugely popular and lively event. This year rock giants Simple Minds are to headline the Hogmanay celebrations.
A Simple Minds spokesman said the group were looking forward to celebrating New Year with their fans at the home of the unique Fireballs swinging festival and a spokesman for the Stonehaven Festivals and Events Committee said: “This is simply a dream come true for us. We are thrilled and delighted these music legends have agreed to come to Stonehaven for our big Hogmanay party.
Here in the North of Scotland we are always trying to improve your experience as GP speciality trainees. We run regular Trainee Forums three times a year. These forums are open to all to attend and are your opportunity to give us feedback on your training experience both in the hospital and general practice components of your training. The forums are valued by our existing trainees and are well attended. We also use them to develop new training initiatives in partnership with yourselves.
Mike McIver, an ST1 currently in Grantown, and previously in Oban has been at the video again! Mike was at the Rural Program conference in Stornoway and persuaded a few of his colleagues to speak about what has attracted them to the Rural Program.
One day left to make that all important decision! Applications to the first round of GP recruitment for August 2014 close at 5 pm tomorrow, Thursday 5'th December.
So if you have not already done so, get your application in to come and work in the North of Scotland. Whether it be the Grampian Program based around Aberdeen, the "Oil Capital of Europe", The Caledonian Program based around Inverness, "Capital of The Highlands" or our innovatory rural Track Program based on our rural general hospitals, the lifestyle and training available to you are second to none. Just look at the blog and read what our current trainees are saying about their training here or follow the links to some of the lifestyle surveys that we have posted here over the last year.
