Higher Specialist Training at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust – General Adult Psychiatry
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is a health and social care trust that provides a wide range of clinical services across Cambridgeshire. This includes mental health care at primary, secondary and tertiary levels as well as an increasing number of community services in innovative integrated systems. Specialist mental health services include (amongst many others) an eating disorder in-patient unit, forensic services and an adult ADHD clinic. The Trust works closely with acute hospitals in the area – the world-renowned Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, as well as Hinchingbrooke and Peterborough hospitals in the north of the county.
Our higher specialist training scheme for General Adult psychiatry training scheme has approximately 14 trainees across a 3 year programme. Higher trainees will spend a year in acute psychiatry with 6 months on an acute adult ward in Cambridge or Peterborough rotating with 6 months in the associated Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team. A second year of higher training will be with a community based mental health team in Cambridge, Huntingdon or Peterborough, providing medical input and leadership to a multidisciplinary community team.
The third year of training is spent in a specialist post. CPFT offers several different specialist experiences, including both liaison psychiatry (at Addenbrooke's hospital and Peteborough) and addiction psychiatry at Addenbrooke’s hospital (these posts can lead to a subspecialty endorsement), eating disorders, early intervention in psychosis, and personality disorders. Specialist posts leading to endorsements are subject to competition in a Deanery wide system allowing trainees to also apply for other experiences in nearby Trusts including substance misuse and rehabilitation psychiatry.
Higher trainees have 2 sessions per week to pursue special clinical interests or research and we have many opportunities available including our adult ADHD clinic, other specialist clinics or research opportunities. Many of our clinical supervisors have strong links with the University of Cambridge, with research that includes work on imaging studies, immunology, ADHD, biomarkers for depression and clozapine. We are also fortunate to have several academic higher trainees in ACL or ACF posts.
Peterborough and Cambridge have ongoing training opportunities including case conferences, academic lectures and opportunities to further develop competencies in teaching and training. CPFT hosts the Deanery-funded Leading for Improvement (LEAP) leadership course to help higher trainees develop medical leadership competencies and we participate in the Chief Residents Leadership and Management Programme with Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP) and the Judge Business School.
Cambridgeshire is an ideal place to live and work, with great local facilities, easy access to London and a family-friendly high standard of living.
Our higher training scheme will demonstrate why psychiatry is such a uniquely rewarding and challenging medical specialty, and support your ongoing specialist training to become a clinical leader in delivering high quality mental health care of the future.
For further information, please contact Dr Angus Brown, local TPD on: angus.brown@cpft.nhs.uk