An evaluation of the West of Scotland in-programme Chief Resident role.

Background: Postgraduate leadership education is an evolving field. Locally we have an established 'Chief Residency' programme where centres have two to four senior trainees completing leadership duties alongside clinical workload, supported by local directors of medical education. This is twinned with a 4-day central training programme and peer-support network.

South Yorkshire Cohort: a 'cohort trials facility' study of health and weight - protocol for the recruitment phase.

Background: Growing levels of both obesity and chronic disease in the general population pose a major public health problem. In the UK, an innovative 'health and weight' cohort trials facility, the 'South Yorkshire Cohort', is being built in order to provide robust evidence to inform policy, commissioning and clinical decisions in this field. This protocol reports the design of the facility and outlines the recruitment phase methods.

Community pharmacists providing emergency contraception give little advice about future contraceptive use: a mystery shopper study.

Background: UK women increasingly prefer to attend a pharmacy for emergency contraception (EC) rather than a doctor. Most women who use EC do not conceive and remain at risk of pregnancy unless they start regular contraception. We undertook a study to evaluate the quality of service provision in community pharmacies in Lothian, Scotland, and to determine what advice is given about contraception after EC use.