Flexible and Less Than Full Time Training
Flexible and less than full time training is increasingly common to meet the demands of the modern workforce, and is fully supported by Health Education East of England (HEEoE). Dr Kate Millward is the current trainee representative and Dr Nicky Simler is the consultant representative; read more about them below.
Click on these links to HEEoE and BMA resources about flexible training if you would like more information.
Meet the team:
Dr Nicky Simler, Consultant Chest Physician and Less Than Full Time Mentor for Eastern Deanery Respiratory Training Committee
I am a Consultant Chest Physician at Hinchingbrooke Hospital and also work at Royal Papworth Hospital in the ILD service. I qualified at Manchester Medical School and trained in the North West before taking up a training post in respiratory medicine in the North West Thames region. I became a flexible trainee after having my first child and was able to complete my training whilst working 80% WTE. I do not believe that I would have been able to complete my training without the opportunity to go LTFT. At the end of my training post I then chose to become a full time consultant. I am keen to help training doctors explore the options for LTFT working and am happy to support them in their decision making. I can be contacted by email or via Hinchingbrooke/Papworth switchboard.
Dual CCT in Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine
Respiratory Medicine is one of five specialities with an agreed dual CCT programme with Intensive Care Medicine (the others being Acute Internal Medicine, Anaesthesia, Emergency Medicine and Renal Medicine). For dual CCTs, trainees may enter either programme first and have the appropriate competencies dual counted for the second CCT; simultaneous entry to both programmes is not currently possible. Trainees will also not be able to apply for Dual CCTs if they are beyond the end of ST5 in their initial specialty of appointment at the time of interview for ICM. It is also important to note that triple accreditation is not currently permitted by the GMC; this means that trainees will CCT in Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine only, with no qualification in General Internal Medicine (GIM).
The training programme currently looks like this:
or
For more information, the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine has an excellent website, and the section regarding Dual CCTs can be found here.
There are currently seven trainees in the East of England undertaking the dual CCT in Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine – if you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch!