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FORGE

What is FORGE?

FORGE stands for Future-Oriented Reform of Generalist Education.

FORGE is a three-year research study exploring a new way of training hospital doctors in England through Standalone General Internal Medicine (GIM) training.

People are living longer, many are living with several health conditions at once, and care increasingly needs to be coordinated across hospitals, community services, and primary care. FORGE is examining whether this new generalist approach to medical training can help prepare doctors for these challenges and strengthen the future NHS workforce.

Why does this project matter?

Many people receive care from multiple teams and services, particularly patients with complex health needs. Traditional hospital training focuses on making doctors into specialists. Whilst specialist care is important, the divisions between specialities can make providing holistic, joined-up care for patients more difficult.

Standalone General Internal Medicine is a new training programme for doctors which aims to prepare them to:

  • care for people with multiple or complex conditions
  • work across different healthcare settings
  • collaborate across specialties and professions
  • provide more joined-up, person-centred care

Below, you can see a map of current hospital sites offering Standalone GIM in England.

Although the programme is expanding nationally, there is still limited evidence about how it works in practice, how doctors and their supervisors experience it, whether it improves workforce sustainability, and what helps organisations successfully support generalist training and consultant generalist roles.

FORGE will provide evidence to help shape future workforce and training policy across the NHS.

Project aims and research questions

FORGE has two main aims:

Aim 1 : To understand how Standalone General Internal Medicine training is being introduced and experienced across England.

Key research questions include:

  • How is the programme delivered across different NHS settings?
  • How do trainees and educators experience the programme?
  • Does training prepare doctors for modern generalist practice?

Aim 2: To explore how organisations support Standalone General Internal Medicine Training,  and how they employ General Internal Medicine graduates.

Key research questions include:

  • How are organisations designing and supporting training, and new generalist roles?
  • What helps doctors use their skills effectively and remain in post?
  • What changes could strengthen the training in future?

Study design

FORGE is running over 36 months and has three phases. A visual of these phases is provided, below.

Phase 1: Understanding early experiences (Months 0–6)

We will explore the experiences of doctors and their supervisors to-date through:

  • national surveys
  • interviews and focus groups
  • workforce data analysis
  • a review of international published evidence relating to generalist hospital training

This phase is designed to help us understand how the programme has worked so far.

Phase 2: Outcomes and organisational readiness (Months 6–24)

We will work with NHS sites across England to explore:

  • experiences of trainees and graduates
  • organisational support
  • workforce impacts
  • local differences in implementation

Phase 3: Looking ahead (Months 24–36)

We will bring together trainees, educators, employers, patients, and stakeholders to:

  • review findings
  • identify what works well
  • co-produce recommendations
  • develop resources for future implementation

Community Involvement and Engagement in FORGE

Community involvement is central to FORGE.

People with lived experience, patients, healthcare staff, and public contributors are helping to shape FORGE right from outset.

FORGE will draw on Workforce Voices’ existing Community Inclusion and Engagement (CIE) Panels, which bring together patients and public contributors and healthcare staff. We will work with the panels to shape project priorities, inform study tools and materials, interpret findings, and co-create outputs/resources.

In addition, FORGE has a Project Advisory Group (PAG), whose function is to is to provide strategic guidance, support project development, and ensure that the project remains relevant to the needs of patients, staff, educators, and healthcare organisations. The PAG brings together a range of perspectives, including public contributors, staff, NHS partners, educators, and subject experts. Members will help shape key decisions across the project, provide challenge and feedback, and support interpretation and dissemination of findings.

Opportunities to get involved

As the project progresses, opportunities to get involved will appear on our site.

Get Involved

Outputs and resources

As the project develops, we will share various FORGE outputs here, which may include:

  • project updates
  • reports and summaries
  • downloadable resources
  • policy briefings
  • practical tools for organisations
  • academic publications
  • videos and visual summaries
  • event materials

If you’d like to hear project specific updates, please complete our short form.

Register for updates

Contact

Project co-leads are

Professor Gill Vance, Workforce Voices co-lead, Newcastle University, gillian.vance@newcastle.ac.uk

Dr Megan Brown, Community Involvement and Engagement lead, Newcastle University, megan.brown@newcastle.ac.uk

email for further questions or to get involved
Workforce Voices
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