East Midlands (South)

UHL NHS Trust incorporates the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital and Leicester General Hospital. CMT posts in these hospitals offer exceptional experience in both acute medicine and chronic disease management in all of the medical disciplines.

UHL NHS Trust offers tertiary referral services for the southern half of the East Midlands, and has strong links with the University of Leicester.

Each CMT rotation has been tailored to provide the right balance of acute medicine and ward based specialty training. All rotations include specialties with strong international academic credentials, and there is a desire for CMT trainees to develop research and audit skills during their time in Leicester in preparation for commencement of specialist training.

General medicine at Northampton General Hospital provides both a broad experience in acute general medicine and training in the full range of medical specialties.

The hospital has a number of new developments including interventional cardiology, an acute stroke unit and a new renal unit, which opened in 2008.

CMT rotations within NGH are split between acute general medicine, which combines work on the emergency assessment unit, and attachments to specialist wards including cardiology, respiratory, stroke, nephrology, haematology and predominantly outpatient-based specialties, such as dermatology, rheumatology & neurology.

These one-year rotations provide excellent specialist and general medicine training, and have been combined with training posts at UHL to ensure a rounded and complete two-year training in core medical training.

Kettering has been a popular choice for medical trainees for many years due to its friendly atmosphere and good track record with the MRCP exam; as a result, many former trainees return to the Trust subsequently as senior trainees or consultants.

The core medical training program provides trainees with a broad range of skills and experience to enable them to confidently progress to higher specialist training. The rotations contain a good mixture of the essential medical specialties, with two of the rotations offering the further possibility of gaining valuable experience of emergency medicine.

These posts would be especially suited to trainees wanting to enter acute medicine. Again, the year in Kettering is combined with one year in Leicester, and the specialties undertaken over the two years have been chosen to complement each other so as to allow the CMT trainee the opportunity to consolidate vital emergency medicine and outpatient skills, in preparation for a successful transition to specialty training.

CMT trainees in our training program have a strong pass rate for MRCP Part I, II and PACES. There is a well-established educational program and excellent PACES teaching at each of the three sites for the six-eight weeks before each diet of PACES.

The newly-established cross-deanery education program runs in a two-year cycle, and provides interactive teaching in all the medical specialties and an opportunity to meet the specialty training program directors to gain career guidance.

This program supplements local CMT programmes which are also of very high quality. A recent external assessors' visit commented specifically on the well-structured education programme and the opportunities available for training in East Midlands (South).

The Royal College of Physicians tutors take an active role in providing pastoral care and coordinate regular reviews of trainee progress, so as to ensure that any problems - either with a particular post, or an individual's progress - are promptly addressed.

Trainees also play a vital role in developing the CMT programme, and representatives sit on the CMT Committee to provide feedback and suggestions for improving the programme.

For further details on all the East Midlands (South) CT1 programmes, and for any additional information regarding ACCS training and academic clinical fellowships (ACFs), please go to www.lnrmed.org.uk.