General practitioners' opinions regarding the need for training in dermatology at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Skin disorders affect between one‐quarter and one‐third of the population at any time.1 Between 10 and 15% of general practitioner (GP) consultations are related to the skin: 75% of these complaints are cared for exclusively by primary care physicians.2, 3 There is an absence of compulsory vocational training in dermatology for GPs in the UK and the core medical curriculum in some UK universities is lacking in adequate dermatology training.4–6 In contrast, family physicians in the USA are now required to have a minimum of 60 h of dermatological training, although most programmes allocate 135 h.7 To assess GPs' attitudes and opinions towards dermatology training, an anonymous postal questionnaire was circulated to 583 GPs in Lothian. A descriptive approach was used to detail GPs' experience of dermatology training in the locality at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a quantitative approach was used to determine: (i) how important doctors consider postgraduate training in dermatology relative to training in other specialities (including some that are compulsory during their vocational training); (ii) what factors prevent doctors from pursuing postgraduate training in dermatology; (iii) how GPs' perceptions of the importance of dermatology training relate to their basic characteristics (type of GP, length of experience and gender); and (iv) how GPs' assessments of their own competence in managing dermatology conditions relate to the type of training they have received, their length of service in practice and their gender. Details of the statistical methods used in determining these four points are available on request. From the results, an attempt was made to make some recommendations regarding the future of dermatology teaching for general practitioners.