Senior house officers: the lost tribes

Abstract

There are more senior house officers than doctors in any other training grade in Britain but nobody knows what they do in hospitals or has a clear idea what skills they should be learning. Nobody is responsible for them and they suffer from having a poor career structure and inadequate training. Now that there are government initiatives to reduce the hours that junior doctors work and to limit the time it takes to train to become a specialist, the problems that senior house officers face can no longer be ignored. A conference for senior house officers held last week talked about the problems that they face and tried to find some solutions.