Severn Deanery
The region
Welcome to the Wild West and 'The Magnificent Severn'!
The Severn Deanery Postgraduate School of Medicine is a vibrant organisation committed to thtraining of our future physicians. Severn offers something for everyone - the Cotswolds, the 'big city' feel of Bristol, and the attractive coastline and hills of Somerset.
There are good transport links to London, and further south down the M5, for sailing and surfing in Devon and Cornwall. Our sporting and cultural opportunities are excellent, and it is no coincidence that virtually everyone who has worked in our part of the West Country wants to stay.
Click on the headings below to reveal further information:
‹ Core medical training in Severn ›
The majority of core training rotations are offered on a split NHS trust basis with a number of posts offering a single trust rotation.
All our rotations have been designed to provide a similar broad high-quality experience of the postgraduate CMT curriculum, whether in our district general or tertiary referral hospitals.
The posts in all rotations are appropriate to training in acute and general medicine together with some opportunities to gain experience in some of the specialties.
Most involve a total six attachments, each of which are four months in duration - but a few include some six-month blocks (eg critical care medicine).
Our training programmes in medicine are based in the eight trusts in the Severn Deanery's territory (click the links below for more information):
- Bath Royal United Hospital NHS Trust
- Gloucestershire Hospitals
- North Bristol NHS Trust
- Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust
- University Hospitals Bristol (UHB) NHS Foundation Trust
- Weston Area Health NHS Trust
- Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
‹ CMT rotations ›
Candidates invited to interview will be asked to rank their choice of trusts by submitting a preference form to the Deanery, via the Deanery website, in advance of their attendance at interview.
All the rotations and the trusts involved are detailed on the Severn School of Medicine website at http://medicine.severndeanery.org/.
Successful candidates at interview will be allocated specific rotations by the college tutors in the tTrusts, as per the preferences expressed by trainees, and according to interview ranking.
Our trainee representatives sit on the school of medicine and CMT committees, and are able to represent views at a board level.
Apart from the local teaching programme that is aligned to the curriculum, we run regional study days four times a year, and these are hugely popular.
Our heads of school, training programme directors, college tutors and educational supervisors (several of whom have educational qualifications) are all highly motivated, with a passion for supporting and educating our trainees and helping them achieve their potential, and all are ably supported by a very efficient management team at the Deanery.
Finally, we wish you every success with your career in medicine, and remember - we're the best from the West!
‹ Acute care common stem (medicine) in Severn Deanery ›
The ACCS programme in Severn Deanery was established in 2007, and has been running since. In 2012, seven CT1 posts in ACCS-AM will be available at the Deanery, are based at the locations and trusts listed below (click the names of trusts/hospitals to open their websites in a new window):
Information regarding each trust/hospital on training programme
All seven of these ACCS-AM posts are for three years' duration; in the first two years, trainees will rotate through the four acute specialties: emergency medicine, acute medicine, intensive care medicine, and anaesthesia.
The order of these rotations is not fixed, but the majority will spend six months in acute medicine and emergency medicine in the first year; and the second 12 months will be divided between anaesthesia and intensive care medicine.
The third year of the ACCS-AM programme will be within a core medical training (CMT) rotation in a core training level 2 (CT2) post; it is highly likely that the third year will be in a different hospital to the first two years.
Information on each of the posts, and relevant trusts & hospitals, can be viewed below. All hospitals are within commutable distance from Bristol; and each of the Severn Deanery trusts has a good reputation for teaching and exam success.
‹ Southmead & Frenchay Hospitals (North Bristol Trust) - one post ›
These hospitals are within the same trust, and rotations will be allocated between them - the exact nature of the rotations will be decided after appointment.
Frenchay Hospital is the regional trauma centre, and all emergency medicine attachments will be in this hospital, as there is no ED at Southmead Hospital. Acute medicine can take place on either site.
Frenchay is also the regional neurosurgical and plastics centre, and has no maternity services on site.
Southmead Hospital has the regional renal unit and a large maternity service. Both hospitals have an intensive care unit.
‹ Royal United Hospital, Bath - one post ›
Bath Royal United Hospital is a large and busy district general hospital, dealing with all surgical specialties.
An ACCS trainee here will spend their first year practising acute medicine on the medical assessment unit and working in the emergency department, while the second year will be spent in the anaesthesia and intensive care departments.
BRUH also includes a large and busy maternity unit, while the anaesthetic department has a good reputation for research as well as teaching for the primary FRCA examination.
‹ Great Western NHS Trust, Swindon - two posts ›
Swindon Great Western is a busy district general hospital on the M4 corridor, about 45 minutes from Bristol. Good training in all ACCS specialties is available here; there are maternity services on site, as well as developing a reputation for excellent training in regional anaesthesia.
‹ Cheltenham & Gloucester NHS Trust - two posts ›
This is a large, two-hospital NHS Trust (Gloucester Royal Hospital & Cheltenham General Hospital). Trainees here will be allocated post selection to rotate through either one or other hospital (or in some cases, between the two).
Maternity services are offered currently on both sites (although reconfiguration may occur in future); and both have an excellent reputation for teaching and exam success.
‹ Taunton - one post ›
Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital is a large, busy district general hospital 50 minutes south of Bristol down the M5. Training in this trust is split between the Severn and SW Peninsula deaneries, with trainees being afforded good exposure to all elements of the ACCS programme.
Musgrove Park is the regional centre for bariatric surgery, and has a busy ITU/HDU with up to 1,000 admissions per annum.
All posts will be allocated by the training programme director, post-selection. Successful candidates will be appointed to the deanery as an overall body, but no guarantee regarding specific hospital allocation can be made at that stage.
Allocation will be carried out primarily based on ranking within the interview process, but personal circumstances will be considered.
Should you require any further information regarding any of the hospitals, trusts or specific departments, please contact either the head of school, Dr Anne Whaley, or the training programme director, Dr Tom Simpson. Their contact details - along with further information on ACCS training - can be found on the Severn Deanery ACCS website.
BMJ Careers profile: http://careers.bmj.com/specialty-training-mmc-2011/Severn-Deanery
Contact details
Deanery House
Vantage Office Park
Old Gloucester Road
Hambrook
Bristol
BS16 1GW
Email: severn.stsupport@southwest.nhs.uk
