Hi all,
An update to the last post on upcoming training dates:
Belfast - April 2022 (completed)
Cardiff - May 2022 (completed)
Jersey & Channel Islands 1 - May 2022 (completed)
Manchester 1 - June 2022 (completed)
Scotland 1 - July 2022 (completed)
Manchester 2 - July 2022 (completed)
Scotland 2 - August 2022 (fully booked)
Jersey & Channel Islands 2 - August 2022 (fully booked)
Scotland 3 - September 2022 (fully booked)
Reading 1 - October 2022 (fully booked)
Brighton / Bournemouth - November 2022 (places available via learnpacs.com)
Reading 2 - December 2022 (TBC - booking available soon)
Durham - December 2022 (TBC - booking available soon)
Wherever possible, the costs remain at ÂŁ50/head for the 1-day Fundamentals and around ÂŁ450 for the 2-day Intermediate, including assessment & certification. The 1-day XDS, 1-day GDPR for PACS Personnel and 3-day Advanced sessions are being offered separately to those already on the waiting lists. The sessions are arranged and offered on a non-profit basis - please note that myself and the speakers are volunteers and doing the best we can to work through the waiting lists for these sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions!
Will there be a London date?
We are on track to have our highest number of sessions ever this year, at around 2,000 attendees total, however there are currently no plans to offer sessions in London due to the high costs and new complex contractual terms of venues and accommodation (meeting spaces which we can accredit for the assessment usually require 50% upfront payment now in the post-COVID world!). This has been explored extensively recently and will be kept under review as venues ease back into âbusiness as usualâ though.
Manchester has long been the main base for training as pretty much everywhere in the UK can reach it relatively easily.
Can Suppliers join the sessions?
Yes. The idea of the non-profit training we run is that the playing field is leveled and everyone ends up talking the same language. It benefits everyone, ultimately including our patients, to be on the same page. Suppliers are welcome to join the public sessions listed, or book their own private sessions. Private, dedicated, sessions are run and priced in the same way, but we can use a custom venue (as you provide the organisational labour to make that happen!)
Are the sessions broadcast?
We can livecast the public sessions to private rooms for suppliers or groups who wish / need to remain apart from others or together themselves - into a different room in the venues, or another venue completely. This is a slightly more costly option as an AV team is required. This is not the use of Teams or Zoom, the connected rooms have full talkback and access to the presenters as those in the main room. The synchronisation is carried out using (now legacy) BlackBerry applications, which amazingly are still the best for the specific task!
Dedicated Sessions
Several regions have now arranged their own dedicated sessions for their Trusts or between a group of neighbouring hospitals. Dedicated sessions run in addition to the open dates listed above and are preferred as a site lead manages (your own!) attendees on our behalf. This cuts down admin for us tremendously. Please message me directly (on here or via email) if anyone would like to arrange a dedicated session for your region, Trust or group of sites as these help us offer more training in the same space of time. Some suppliers have over the years chosen to arrange and offer out training for their sites, and again this reduces administration for us.
Purchase Orders
Purchase Orders are welcome for those arranging dedicated sessions or for groups of more than 10 attendees. We have paused accepting POs for individual attendees as it is near impossible to receive payment from NHS Trusts in a timely manner and without much hassle and frustration - the average time from request to payment being received reaching several months in many cases, with much time spent chasing POs being the norm!
Corporate Support
In light of the number of attendees this year we are looking for new supporters for the sessions. Our long time benefactor is concentrating their resources on other areas post-COVID and we would like to continue offering the lunches and snacks that kept our attendees well fed going forwards. If there is another organisation who would like to support the sessions going forward, please email or PM one of us directly (you may need to post to unlock the PM function here - anti-spam!)
Thanks again to everyone for their feedback and kind words over the sessions already run this year - we are making headway through everyone on the waitlist and appreciate the encouragement to keep offering these!
Al.