Director of Training Report   Two apparently coincidental coupled events occurred for me yesterday and this morning that symbolise what it is about general practice that makes me feel so privileged to be in this role. Yesterday I was called early in the morning to attend a man who had just died. It was a good death being timely and he had his family around him when he died. Then after a full day I was privileged to be at the birth of a woman whom I had been looking after during her labour. A day bracketed by death and birth. This morning I was the invited guest to a Mens Breakfast. As I was talking about the importance of seeking medical attention for chest pain my phone rang although I was not on call. I returned the call at the end of the Mens Breakfast. It was a local friend who often helps me out on our farm. He has a history of early onset Ischaemic heart disease. He was worried because he was getting angina on minimal exercise. As I was going to the hospital to do my post-natal visit I dropped in on my friend and took him with me to the hospital. At the hospital the nurse who came to help knew my friend as he had taught her brother metal work at the local high school. General practice invites us to participate in some of the most meaningful events in people's lives. Living in the community in which we practice has an enormous richness of relationships and connections.   Amalgamation getGP and Greater Green Triangle medical educators have been working on the details of how we might deliver education across the new amalgamated RTP. There is a lot to be done. There are issues of consistency of program across the whole training provider, consideration of what activities can be combined and issues of how to deliver training in the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. Both getGP and GGT are finding that already some of their educational groups are becoming large. As a consequence, we are looking at establishing additional Peer Learning Groups and Cluster Groups.   Practice match and contracts The practice match is now in progress. Registrars are reminded that the practice match is binding. It is important that registrars are happy with the contract they will be signing with a practice if they are matched to the practice. All practices should make available to prospective registrars, at interview stage,  a copy of the contract that they use for their registrars.   STARs The STARs resource has become very comprehensive with a large number of reference resources and learning activities. STARs is accessible from the top GPRime menu.   Learning plans Both colleges require prospective learning plans for training placements. These are plans developed at the start of the placement that provide a structure to match the learning opportunities of the placement to the learning needs of the registrar. GPRime has a tool to achieve this in the Learning Needs Analysis Tools. It is important that you undertake this activity early in a training placement.

James Brown - Director of Training