ICM Recruitment FAQs
Simultaneous Recruitment FAQs for Dual & Triple ICM CCT Programmes
Starting from the 2024/2025 application window, you can now apply for Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) Specialty Training at the same time as applying for one of its GMC-approved partner specialties for either dual or triple ICM CCT training. This allows applicants to accept both an ICM offer and an offer from a partner specialty in the same year, enabling doctors to start dual/triple training concurrently if successful.
The application process remains the same as in previous years. Applicants can view available vacancies on the Oriel system and submit applications for both ICM and any of its GMC-approved partner specialties for Dual or Triple CCT training.
Acute Internal Medicine, Renal Medicine and Respiratory Medicine have General Internal Medicine incorporated into their curricula and are Dual CCT Programmes by default, therefore applicants would only need to apply for an ICM post and either an Acute Internal, Renal or Respiratory Medicine post to apply for the Triple CCT Programme. You do not have to apply for 3 posts.
Applicants will receive offers through Oriel for ICM and their partner specialty (if they have applied for dual/triple CCT training). If you have been successful at interview and are offered posts in both specialties in the same region, you can accept both offers simultaneously through the standard Oriel process.
Yes, applicants can accept two offers in this process if the offers are from ICM and one of its partner specialties. However, to be eligible to undertake one of the GMC-approved dual/triple ICM CCT training programmes, both offers must be based in the same geographical region. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure this.
If you accept offers in different regions, you will be contacted by the ICM National Recruitment Office (ICMNRO) and required to choose one programme and withdraw from the other.
Yes, you can hold offers from both ICM and one of its partner specialties up to the hold deadline. However, if the offers remain in different regions after the upgrade deadline, you must decline one of the programmes.
Yes, applicants have until the upgrade deadline to try securing an upgrade that would place both offers in the same region. If, by the deadline, the offers are still in different regions, you will need to withdraw from one of the programmes.
No, interviews for ICM and its partner specialties will still be held on separate dates due to varying schedules. ICM will still only recruit for Specialty Training once per year.
General FAQs
ICM CCT training is entered at ST3 level following completion of one of four designated core programmes: Acute Care Common Stem (ACCS), Core Anaesthetic Training (CAT), Core Medical Training (CMT) or Defined Route of Entry into Emergency Medicine (DRE-EM). Doctors must have completed one of these core programmes, including its associated specialty examination: FRCA (Primary), MRCP (UK), or MRCEM (Full).
Yes, doctors will be able to apply for Intensive Care Medicine Single CCT training after two years of IMT and full MRCP(UK) PACES.
Please follow this link for further details and support: Training pathway: Group 1 specialties
Yes, doctors will be able to apply for Intensive Care Medicine Single CCT training after two years of Anaesthesia PLUS the Primary FRCA Examination.
Yes, doctors will be able to apply for Intensive Care Medicine Single CCT training after three years of an ACCS programme, if they have the requisite specialty examination: FRCA (Primary), MRCP (UK), or MRCEM (Full).
Yes, you will still be eligible to apply for Group 1 specialties and you may wish to complete the full three-year programme to give you flexibility to apply for any specialty. Doctors will not be disadvantaged if they do not complete IMY3 if the entry criteria for a specialty only requires completion of the first two years of IMT.
Please see the JRCPTB's website for further details and support.
No. Under the pre-2012 Joint CCT system, it was technically possible for surgical trainees to enter the Joint ICM CCT. However in practice, no surgical trainee ever did so. When the standalone ICM CCT was being developed, it was found that there was insufficient competency crossover between core surgery and the other core programmes to allow doctors to enter ICM CCT training and still achieve the required standards in Medicine, Anaesthesia and ICM by the end of Stage 1 training. Whilst it is technically possible for a doctor to dual train in ICM and Surgery (technically a doctor can Dual CCT in any two specialties, if a deanery is willing to fund the programmes) the lack of cross-mappable capabilities would mean that the programmes would be almost purely additive, and the doctor would be in training for many years.
- Please see the information on the Recruitment pages of the website.
- You can also find further details in the respective Dual/Triple CCT guidance on our website
Yes but only in those dual CCT programmes recognised by the GMC e.g. ICM and Anaesthesia or ICM and Emergency Medicine. The ICM CCT programme has been specifically crafted, with its multiple entry core programmes, to facilitate dual accreditation. Doctors would enter the first specialty (either ICM or their partner specialty) in one recruitment episode and compete for entry to the second specialty the following year.
Doctors are able to apply for either specialty first and it is expected doctors may apply for both at the same recruitment episode in order to increase their appointment opportunities. They will, however, in the event of being successful at both interviews, have to choose one or other specialty. It will be down to local regions to advise their applicants based on their individual circumstances about which specialty they should apply for first.
Yes. It is a stipulation of COPMeD and the Department for Health & Social Care that the two/three CCTs must be undertaken in the same Deanery.
Yes, the Faculty is aware that there are increasing numbers of single CCT in ICM holders year on year, and the workforce planning in conjunction with the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) envisages this will continue to climb
Whilst such doctors would indeed have to remain solely in ICM training, it is unlikely that this eventuality would occur. Doctors already in one partner specialty applying to enter the other with over a year of experience are likely to be very strong candidates; this would be analogous to doctors on the ACCS (Anaesthesia) Programme applying for ST4 Anaesthesia, who are competitive in comparison to CAT applicants. Equally, doctors are not entitled to dual training – they must apply for each component in open competition, as with any primary specialty.
Doctors undertaking blocks of ICM outside of the ICM CCT programme can either register as Affiliate Trainees of the Faculty (if they are in one of our partner specialty training programmes) or as an Associate Member or Member of the Faculty if they undertaking blocks of ICM outside of a recognised specialty training programme.
Doctors in training wanting to apply for Affiliate Trainee membership are expected to demonstrate that they have undertaken training commensurate with Stage 1 of the Intensive Care Medicine CCT curriculum. Such doctors can then apply for Affiliate Fellowship of the Faculty (no post nominals). If these Affiliate Fellows then wished to undertake further training to Stage 2 level, they could sit the FFICM Final examination for full Fellowship of the Faculty, with the post nominals FFICM. If they remain unsuccessful in entering ICM Higher Specialty Training, then an option would be to pursue the Portfolio Pathway for entry onto the Specialist Register for Intensive Care Medicine.
Doctors undertaking blocks of ICM outside of the ICM CCT programme are expected to register as Affiliate Trainees of the Faculty.
Yes, provided that your ICM Regional Advisor is satisfied that you have not only obtained but also retained all the necessary complementary competencies. If it has been some time since you undertook the relevant complementary training, your RA may require you to undertake an assessment to be sure that you have the necessary skills and knowledge, or indeed undertake another full complementary training module.
See our guidance on the CESR-CP pathway to a CCT that has more information on this.
Have a burning question you'd like answered?