Paul Baker

My interest in medical education began to surface as RCP tutor and I was in the first cohort of students taking the MA in Teaching and Learning in the Clinical Setting at Edge Hill University. I was subsequently appointed Postgraduate Clinical Tutor for Bolton and we ran FY2 pilots well before Foundation training proper was rolled out in the UK. I was a consultant Geriatrician at Bolton for 25 years, though unusual in that I was a trainee GP (now called GP registrars) in Cheetham Hill before this, being one of few hospital seniors who passed the MRCGP examination.

As chair of the STC in Geriatric Medicine, I founded the MSc in Geriatric Medicine (Salford University), a unique workplace-based Masters course which replaced the Deanery teaching programme for the speciality. I chaired the national SAC for the speciality for 7 years. In 2006 I became Foundation School Director, which now encompasses the whole of the North West, the largest Schools in the country. From Barrow in Furness to Derbyshire, the Pennines and the Wirral, we are responsible for some 2000 trainees in 20 programmes. I have special interests in QA of training, the teaching of empathy and compassionate leadership.