ALL newly qualified doctors are to be assessed for the first time on how well they communicate with patients.

As part of an overhaul of medical training being introduced this week, graduates from medical school will have their competence in carrying out patient consultations and conveying potentially shattering news regularly assessed to ensure that they are as lucid and sensitive as possible.

The changes come amid growing concerns that the academic hothouse of qualifying to become a doctor — which demands top-grade science A levels followed by five years of intense study — is depriving some students of the social skills required to be a good clinician.

The new emphasis is part of an overhaul of postgraduate training for junior doctors, which will also concentrate on teamworking and patient safety as well as on more traditional clinical skills.

Thousands of graduates are starting the two-year Foundation Programme, which replaces the existing pre-registration house officer year and first year of senior house officer (SHO) training. The scheme, part of the Modernising Medical Careers initiative for the NHS, is designed to give trainees exposure to a range of career placements across a broad spectrum of specialities.

However, doctors’ leaders have partly blamed the change for creating a shortage of training posts in the NHS, which has left many young doctors jobless.

The British Medical Association believed that the problem was the result of increasing demand and poor planning, with the number of postgraduate training posts not increasing at the same rate as the demand for places at medical school and applications from overseas. It said that the Modernising Medical Careers training structure had meant that many jobs had been phased out.

The Department of Health denied that hundreds of doctors had been left “on the dole” and said that competition for posts was always competitive at this time of year.

Lord Warner, the Health Minister, yesterday welcomed the foundation programme as a “groundbreaking change . . . driven by the needs of patients and the NHS”.

The second year of the programme, which replaces a trainee doctor’s first year as an SHO, will include new opportunities for experience in areas such as primary care, specialities where there are staff shortages and academic medicine.Doctors’ competence will be assessed throughout their training, meaning that progress will be based on ability rather than the time served. Each foundation doctor will have a dedicated educational supervisor, who will be responsible for providing support and ensuring that they have appropriate learning opportunities. The Government said this meant that the programme was focused on patient safety.

Reforms to SHO and Specialist Registrar training grades will be implemented in 2007. Around 4,850 trainees are starting the Foundation Programme this week after two years of piloting.

Bill Kirkup, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: “At the heart of this new training programme is quality of medical care.

“By making the continuous development of skills and knowledge central to training, and by making explicit the standards of competence that doctors reach before they progress, the programme will improve patient safety as well as medical careers.

“Because these changes have been introduced systematically across the health service, patients can be assured that doctors at each stage of their career have demonstrated their ability to practise safely and effectively at that level.”

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