Background: General Practitioners (GP) and paediatricians sit at the heart of health care for babies, children and young people1. Many GPs have little or no experience of paediatrics as part of their professional training, thus many GPs lack the confidence to assess and treat children effectively2. In contrast, according to data from Health Education England, much of paediatric specialty training focuses on training in a hospital-based system of care. Trainees need to learn how to take a whole-population view of the health needs of children and young people, regardless of the setting of care1. Learning Together is an educational initiative where a GP and a paediatrician collaborate and learn together by seeing children or young people in a joint clinic based in the primary care setting3. The aims are to provide a forum to share knowledge, skills and attitudes, provide more holistic patient centred care, to develop collaborative working and to improve outcomes for children and young people. Methods: Learning Together Clinics were established in the London Northwest University Healthcare Trust in 2022. A GP trainee (GPST3-4) is linked with a senior General Paediatric trainee (ST5 and above) and run clinics together, once a month in the primary care setting, followed immediately by a debrief with a GP supervisor, to facilitate dissemination of knowledge. In September 2025, Paediatric and GP trainees within London Northwest University Healthcare Trust who participated in Learning Together Clinics completed a confidential survey to evaluate their thoughts and experiential outcomes. Their responses to a series of questions were answered quantitatively with a final free-text comments section. Results: The data was collected from 9 participants in total. 89% (n=8) of participants agreed or strongly agreed they gained clinical skills/knowledge from their colleagues; the clinics were valuable to their training, and they formed positive relationships. 89% (n=8) of participants strongly agreed they would recommend these clinics to their peers. 100% (n=9) of trainees agreed or strongly agreed the patients’ needs were met better in the joint clinic. Feedback from the trainees included “these were always incredibly valuable for both patients and for me as a trainee”, “overall it was a very beneficial experience across multiple domains”, “I strongly recommended them to every trainee”, and that the Learning Together Clinic demonstrates “potential for great learning and great patient care”. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that Learning Together Clinics can offer improved outcomes for children and young people by meeting their need with collaborative working. In addition, the clinics develop doctors’ clinical skills and offers valuable training. The NHS England 10-year health plan strives to convene professionals into patient-centred teams to end fragmentation4. A lack of a culture of integration is one of the major barriers to the provision of such collaboration. Learning together clinic can address this by introducing trainees to integrated working during formative years. These findings support the continued provision and development of Learning Together Clinics to enhance training opportunities and improve patient care. This is in alignment with the current drive from the NHS to improve collaborative working and integration5.
Nagle et al. (Thu,) studied this question.