In common with other medical microbiology laboratories in the UK, the biomedical scientist staff (BMS) at Cambridge have faced an increasing burden of specialist registrar (SpR) training from our own, and other specialties, in the face of falling BMS numbers as a result of efficiency savings and an increasing diagnostic workload. This has led to periods of several months in each year in which SpR training by the BMS has had to be abandoned locally in favour of services with formal laboratory contracts.

Developing a longterm strategy to deal with this problem necessitated the preparation of a business case for SpR training by the BMS, which required an estimation of the local BMS SpR training load. In the first two years, SpRs receive the same basic training in diagnostic methodologies provided for trainee BMS. SpRs spend four months annually in full time bench training, apprenticed to qualified BMS, who spend approximately half their working time on direct supervision of the …