The Surgery is a teaching practice for students studying Medicine at Edinburgh University Medical School. This means that we have "Student Doctors" attached to the Practice for periods of 4 weeks at a time, extending over 10 months of the year. The students will be observing consultations between patients and various members of the Practice team during their attachments, and they will accompany the GPs on home visits etc. There will only ever be one student at a time, and he or she will be bound by the same duty of confidentiality that applies to all other members of our Team. Each Student Doctor will require to gain experience and confidence in dealing with patients' problems themselves, so during the course of each attachment, we will seek your permission to allow the Student to obtain the story behind your problem, and/or examine you, if you need to be seen in person.
You will be advised whenever a student is going to to present at any of the appointments that you attend, so that you have the opportunity to ask to see your healthcare professional alone. Please do remember, however, that we are teaching the doctors of the future, and the only way for them to learn is by seeing patients like you.