ABSTRACT
The current agenda for the management of general practice education is huge and all-embracing and departments of postgraduate general practice education (deaneries), in addition to managing a burgeoning core business, are working in a highly complex and dynamic world. Nothing stays still for long in the NHS and the pace of change is faster than ever before. New relationships are con stantly having to be forged, new lines of accountability developed and funding streams channelled, managed and merged. New ways of working are emerging all the time, with the constant development of new models of healthcare provi sion. As a result, questions are being asked of our existing training structures and also of the roles of GP educators and deaneries. Are they truly fit for pur pose, and what should that purpose be? All this, plus mounting governmental pressure to respond to workforce demands in the face of a demoralised profes sion. It becomes no easy task then to both keep the ship afloat, and make head way through what are increasingly choppy waters.
