Why East of England?

“When I was exploring which deanery to opt for my higher training, I felt East of England would be a good choice geographically. The cities and towns within East of England seemed to be in beautiful locations surrounded by peaceful countryside, while also being in close proximity to the hustle and bustle of London as well as being accessible to other parts of the country. The deanery is quite large across different mental health trusts meaning that it provides a variety of interesting and enriching training opportunities across the different sub-specialities of psychiatry, of course including academic opportunities in world-class universities. However, I was also worried about the size of the deanery in terms of needing to move from one rotation to the next. Fortunately, I was reassured that once you are placed in a training post, they retain you within the same area meaning that you do not have to uproot yourself and your family after each year of training.

Once I started working here, specifically in Hertfordshire (HPFT), I found the induction was welcoming and noted that trainees feel listened to by their senior colleagues and medical education team. It appears that the management are responsive here. The workload for trainees seems quite balanced between being busy enough that you gain adequate clinical experience whilst giving us enough time and scope to explore other aspects of training and areas of interest for personal and professional development. Although I felt slightly nervous about the unfamiliarity of going into a completely new deanery and new trust for my higher training, I am now very glad that I decided to opt East of England and HPFT as my first choice and grateful to have been given a place here. I am having a wonderful ST4 year working with a brilliant multidisciplinary team in the community perinatal team, supported by a wonderful supervisors too.”

- Deepti Saladi, ST4 General Adult Psychiatry Trainee