East of England

Regional Training Information

Locality

The East of England deanery has a strong history of delivering excellent training in Intensive Care Medicine. We have particular strengths in academic training, echocardiography, advanced respiratory support, transfer training, neurosciences and trauma. FICE and FUSIC accreditation and supervision is available across the region. Regional ICU ultrasound courses for both occur at least twice a year.

The East of England region is geographically and demographically large with 18 training units across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Hertfordshire and Essex. The region has major teaching centres and busy DGHs where experienced trainers in ICM will guide you through your training. Please see the related Unit Training Briefs for more information on individual ICM training units, or contact the Regional Advisor.

The region is varied but boasts a high standard of living with beautiful cities, towns, coastline and countryside.

Clinical component

The training needs of Single, Dual (Anaesthesia) and Triple (Acute Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Renal Medicine, Respiratory Medicine) Specialty ICM Trainees are all supported within the East of England ICM programme.   We support less than full time training and, within the limits of the programme, support out of programme training, experience and research. The support of our deanery provides funding for a large number of training courses.

Trainees will work with the Training Programme Directors Dr Coralie Carle, Dual CCT TPD and Dr Natasha Lawrence, Single CCT TPD and the Regional Advisors in Intensive Care Medicine, Dr Natasha Lawrence and Dr Vikram Malhotra to develop an integrated clinical training programme that, as well as achieving the aims of the ICM curricula, will address your individual training needs. 

Stages of Training and where you will be based

Stage 1 ICM Training:

 With a large region and the need to co-ordinate with partner specialties for Dual/Triple training we try not to dictate where people train in Stage 1. Instead, early after appointment at national recruitment, we meet with you and discuss how your ICM training in Stage 1 can integrate with any personal circumstances and any existing training plans. While it is not feasible to allow total freedom of choice this system means that you are able to plan accommodation and commuting and we will always try to allocate to hospitals in an area based around where you live and your individual training requirements, minimising travelling distances where we can.

With this in mind, we have divided the hospitals into 4 broad areas:

North East (in no particular order): Norwich, Kings Lynn, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds

North West (in no particular order): Peterborough, Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, Stevenage, Luton & Dunstable, Bedford, Harlow

South West (in no particular order): Watford, Luton & Dunstable, Stevenage, Bedford, Harlow

South East (in no particular order): Harlow, Chelmsford, Southend, Basildon CTC, Colchester, Ipswich

Please note that the borders of the areas are not defined and that cross over between areas is possible depending on your personal circumstances and sometimes necessary depending on post availability and your exact Stage 1 training requirements.

Stage 2 training:

The specialty ICM year is predominantly spent in Cambridge, with 3-month modules each in Neurosciences ICM (Addenbrooke’s), Cardiac ICM (Royal Papworth) and Paediatric ICM (Addenbrooke’s) . Paediatric ICM is either provided by placement to PICU or PaNDR (Paediatric and Neonatal Decision Support and Retrieval Service) depending on your individual background and training requirements (note for dual CCT anaesthesia trainees the dual counting of the paediatric anaesthesia block is enhanced by specific day release, 10 days in total, to PICU during this block).

For those trainees undertaking Dual or Triple CCT accreditation the Special Skills Year (SSY) is undertaken in and coordinated by your partner specialty. For single CCT trainees we are able to offer a wide variety of Special Skills Year Modules across the region, with the list of modules offered and placements increasing year on year.

The region has a good FFICM pass rate and we run local FFICM OSCE/VIVA exam preparation days ahead of the FFICM exam as part of our Annual Regional Teaching Programme.

Stage 3 training:

 Currently Stage 3 training is offered in Addenbrooke’s (General and Neuro ICM units), Royal Papworth (Cardiothoracic Intensive Care unit), Norwich, Chelmsford, Peterborough, Stevenage (Lister), West Suffolk, Ipswich, and Colchester. We are flexible about which Stage 3 training units Stage 3 trainees attend with Stage 3 rotations adapted to suit individual training requirements, personal circumstances including potential future career aspirations as well ensuring a breadth of senior pre-Consultant experience. You can do a minimum of 3 months or maximum of 6 months in a training unit, however we do strongly recommend that at least 6 months of this time is spent in a DGH in order to benefit from the acting up experience and advanced management and training opportunities that this brings.

Regional Teaching

There is an established 2-year rolling, monthly Regional ICM study day programme aligned to the FFICM syllabus and ICM HST Curriculum, targeting the FFICM exam, alongside specific skills, knowledge and ICM competencies required of the ICM Higher Specialty Trainee. Local FFICM OSCE/VIVA exam preparation days run ahead of the FFICM exam within our Annual Regional Teaching Programme.

Beyond the core regional program study days also extend into topics which go beyond the curriculum and have recently included research techniques, ethics, boundaries of transplantation and the future of healthcare delivery. All our units are led by focused and progressive Faculty Tutors and have a strong commitment to education, research and quality improvement, and actively involve trainees in study recruitment and QI projects.

Research Environment

Our region provides an exceptional environment for biomedical research, and the areas of institutional excellence are outlined elsewhere (see http://www.medschl.cam.ac.uk/and http://www.cuh.org.uk/research/research_index.html). Examples of research include internationally recognised programmes of research in neurosciences (traumatic brain injury, consciousness, and neuroanaesthesia), the biology of critical illness (cell biology, epigenetics and translational / early phase clinical studies), pain medicine, anaesthesia, perioperative medicine and critical care.  The programmes are supported by a diverse range of wider collaborations, which allow us to accommodate almost all clinical interests relating to intensive care medicine including trainees appointed to academic training programmes.