About us

SCIPY is a Northern based version of the very successful South Coast Intensive Primary (SCIP) course which has been running for about fifteen years now with fantastic results. SCIP was created by Dr Jonathan Harrison who is a Consultant Anaesthetist at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. He initially set the course up along with another consultant and three SHO's who were frustrated with the difficulties of organising Primary FRCA SOE and OSCE practice. SCIPY is a copy of the SCIP course and is being run with the full support of Dr Harrison.

SCIP and SCIPY are unusual in that they use a mixture of consultants and trainees on their course faculty. The Primary FRCA is a relatively new exam and many consultants won't have sat it or even been to the College to observe an exam so may never have seen an OSCE. Using trainees on the course allows us to keep it as close as possible to the exam. Also, on each course we are usually fortunate to have at least one current or immediate past Royal College of Anaesthetists Primary FRCA examiner on the faculty.

Core SCIPY faculty:

Martin Diacon

Olena Mateszko

John Roberts

Mark Smith