Intercontinental translatability of a peer-led GP education model from New Zealand to the United Kingdom: a pilot study

Background Pegasus Small Group education for General Practitioners (GPs) is a professional development programme that has been delivered in Canterbury, New Zealand for over 30 years. Peer developed content is delivered in small groups supporting interactive discussions informed by evidence and locally relevant data.

Aim An international collaboration between South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in the UK and Pegasus Health in Canterbury New Zealand aimed to determine whether the Canterbury model of Small Group (SG) professional development for GPs was transferrable to the South Tyneside context.

Design & setting This was a pilot qualitative study testing proof of concept for the Pegasus Small Group GP education model of professional development in another country.

Method To test the concept, three pilot sessions on Persistent Pain, Screening, and Optimising Treatment were delivered between November 2021, and March 2022. Four UK GPs were trained as SG leaders and a member of the Pegasus team liaised with various UK GPs in South Tyneside to adapt topics for the local context. The use of videoconferencing (MSTeams, Zoom) to deliver support, training, and the programme itself had been developed and refined in the pandemic so that it could be run entirely online without losing its core components or interactive nature.

Results Thirty-one, 50 and 61 GPs respectively from the 68 registered GPs attended the three sessions, 90% of whom rated the overall quality as good or excellent. These results and other positive feedback from attendees provided a mandate for a further extension over the following months.

Conclusion The pilot proved the potential for health systems to collaborate globally despite geographical distance. A wider evaluation to assess the impact of the education initiative is needed to determine the impact on patient care and to demonstrate the benefits of supporting the small group peer education model.