Practice Placements overview

Practice placements are for ensuring that doctors are ready to enter independent professional practice as a GP in the NHS.

Assessment of the doctor through Workplace Based Assessments (WPBAs), carried out by supervisors during a practice placement, is the method for ensuring that the doctor is ready to enter (or re-enter) independent professional practice as a GP in the NHS.

For definitions and descriptions of the supervisor roles, visit the Clinical and education supervision model guidelines page.

Clinical placements take place once the doctor has been included on the GMC Register with a Licence to Practice (LtP) and subsequently admitted to the NHS England Medical Performers List (MPL) with conditions or voluntary undertakings. In addition, the doctor is allowed to consult independently, and be supervised at a level considered most appropriate by their supervisor.

However, some doctors may wish to undertake an unpaid observation placement in a practice prior to them taking the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ), and therefore prior to them being granted admission to the MPL. This observation placement allows for a more extended induction process covering the contextual aspects of UK primary care, as well as introducing them to their future clinical and non-clinical roles.