Involvement of general practice (family medicine) in undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom.

Overview

We describe the changes in the development and delivery of undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom as it moved from being exclusively hospital based to one that is increasingly led and delivered by academic departments of general practice (GP), GP teachers, and hospitalists guided by the General Medical Council. We describe the impact of this change on GP teachers, medical students, and patients. The Kings Medical Firm in the Community and The Cambridge Community-based clinical course have been examples of innovation in undergraduate GP teaching and illustrate some of the strengths and challenges of delivering undergraduate medical teaching in the community.