Poor teaching blamed for new doctors' confusion over test results

Poor pathology teaching during medical school has been blamed for increasing numbers of new doctors who do not understand hospital laboratory results, according to biochemists.

Out of 80 new doctors that were surveyed 18% said they would order a test they could not fully interpret.

The survey was carried out by the Association of Clinical Biochemistry and asked 80 juniors at the Northern general Hospital in Sheffield, how they felt about ordering clinical biochemistry tests.

In three tests, more than a third of those questioned said they were not confident - and 18% of the doctors said they were happy to order a test which they did not fully know how to interpret.

Seven out of 10 said they would like more teaching in clinical biochemistry. The ACB blames poor teaching of the subject at medical school. The amount of time devoted to pathology teaching has reduced in recent years.

The General Medical Council is planning to review its curriculum guidance.