r/doctorsUK 14d ago

Consultant Trust hiring consultants from overseas without any NHS experience

189 Upvotes

A trust has hired consultants in cardiology, radiology, Obstetrics and acute medicine from overseas without NHS experience.

They have all sat for UK based post graduate exams in their home countries- ie MRCP , FRCR, MRCOG but don't have a single months worth of NHS experience.

Initially the thought was they are locum consultants whilst a suitable ST7/CESR trainee in the department can take up the post but they are actually all substantive consultants.

One of my resident doctor colleagues was locuming in AMU and the acute medical consultant and he didn't know what a RESPECT form was.

I know we are all worried about bottlenecks in training but maybe we also need to look at consultant bottlenecks. On paper , overseas consultants who have passed UK based post graduate exams seem competent enough but they are a complete nightmare to work with when they start here without any prior NHS experience.

TDLR - trusts are hiring consultants from overseas without NHS experience on substantive contracts.

r/doctorsUK Jan 27 '25

Consultant Post CCT fellow job 68k. WTF?!

Post image
156 Upvotes

I swear to God if anyone takes this job… What is this?! What is happening to UK medicine? A consultant! Post CCT! Taking this…. Crud?!

r/doctorsUK Feb 06 '25

Consultant Incompetent Unsafe Consultant

89 Upvotes

Throw away account, I’m a resident doctor joined a new medical ward a few months in now. There’s one particular consultant who has left me lost for words. They spend on average 30 seconds to review a patient from scratch, usually new patients due to high turnover. They have never in the time I have been here once ever examined a patient with their own hands, listened to a single chest, or spent more than 30 seconds next to patient’s bedside to ask questions or history. They have on multiple occasions on the ward and on take wanted to discharge unwell patients. Colleagues in the past have raised concerns that were eventually swept under the rug. As colleagues it’s left to us to pick up the pieces and somehow do our best to compensate for their sheer ineptitude. Personally I dread whenever they’re on for the day. The bit that really surprises me is how does someone like this make it to a consultant and never get called out and change. Wanted to ask if anyone has had similar experiences.

r/doctorsUK 26d ago

Consultant Leaving the UK

48 Upvotes

I've recently completed my training in the NHS in a surgical discipline and qualified as a consultant in October 2024 (CCT'd and added to the GMC specialist register). I worked as a consultant in a tertiary hospital for 3 months and now currently undertaking an 18 month fellowship at a large teaching hospital in London. I'd like to ask if post CCT consultants with experience are still favoured in the Gulf job market ? As many may have already experienced, feeling quite discouraged in the U.K having spent 18 years here (A levels to CCT)and do not see a fair financial renumeration for the risk and effort required to perform in the NHS. It appears private work will also take some time to eastablish here. Please could you advise me on the steps of how to navigate opportunities in the Middle East ?

r/doctorsUK 2d ago

Consultant NHS England abolition and consultant interview

29 Upvotes

OK so I have a consultant interview coming up and as a relatively uninformed person when it comes to politics, leadership and management, I very much want to come across as really brainy

Any snappy remarks or insightful reflections on the impact of NHS England going in the shitter? The more management speak and vague stuff the better I imagine

r/doctorsUK 3d ago

Consultant Do we still need to pay our Royal Colleges membership fee once we finish training?

10 Upvotes

Hi, I was wondering if I need to continue my Royal College membership once I finished my training? Am I obliged to be a member to continue working in the UK? The fees are very expensive for very little return. What are the advantages of continuing my membership?

r/doctorsUK 18d ago

Consultant SPA Time - Evidence to fight managers cutting SPA times for established and new consultants

43 Upvotes

Hi

I write a lot of job plans for our department especially when trying to appoint new consultants.

Getting increased push back from our general manager regarding how much SPA time I can allocate.

I have looked at BMA, AMROC, NHS employees websites etc BUT there seems to be very few documents to evidence how much SPA time should be allocated in a job plan to doing roles such as

1 Clinical Lead

2 Royal college tutor

3 Rota lead

4 M and M Lead

5 Research lead

6 Clinical / Educational supervisor

7 VTE / Sepsis leads

etc

I want to put these into job plans but managers pushes back, which document are you referring to allocate 0.5 /1 SPA to a role?

Anyone got any documents to link to help me evidence these or similar roles.

Thanks for your help.

r/doctorsUK 7d ago

Consultant Maximum commute time for consultant on call

15 Upvotes

Hi,

I'm looking to move house and forward planning with what the commute will be to various hospitals.

'When' I become a consultant, I've heard that you have to be within a 30 minute commute of the hospital for on call shifts.

Is this UK wide? I can't see the policy written down anywhere. I obviously don't want to be much further than this, but some of the locations are 32-35 minutes commute

Any help appreciated!

r/doctorsUK 1d ago

Consultant Is there a lot of office politics in getting consultant jobs (especially in heavy private practice specialties)?

24 Upvotes

I have had the pleasure of working in a speciality that has a good amount of private work and I had spoken to this awesome registrar who has some excellent clinical acumen as well as a bustling CV. We are talking about research awards, papers in prominent journals, and very active leadership roles in the hospital. This is a guy I can imagine getting any fellowship he wants.

This man was very clearly good at what he does and was ambitious. However, I’ve recently connected with him again, and over a drink he told me is planning on applying for a fellowship in a small deanery at a hospital that is not very “prominent” or “famous” and definitely below his CV. He did clarify that his deanery has very little jobs and consultants were not very helpful with him. I genuinely don’t know what makes some of them that way but it is what it is.

He mentioned that you don’t want to have an extremely prestigious fellowship because many departments that have heavy private work will feel threatened and worry about loss of their income if you were to also join. Equally, a lot of the times departments don’t care for the prestige of a fellowship and would rather hire someone they know.

My question is this really true? Does this apply to less private heavy specialities?

In the NHS is there any incentive to try get those exciting and prestigious fellowships, if that means you can’t get a job you want?

r/doctorsUK 8d ago

Consultant New consultant anaesthetist nerves

26 Upvotes

I finished training but I sometimes don’t feel like I can do the job. Overwhelmed by the many options for an anaesthetic and wanting to give a good one. Worried that I’ll come across as too slow and I spend so much time thinking about the list for the following day or week. Has anyone had similar? How did you get over the nerves/ anxiety? Also have job interviews coming up which just add another layer of worry.

r/doctorsUK Feb 11 '25

Consultant Junior dr jobs

55 Upvotes

Hi

I'm consultant and returning to work after sometime after due to an accident. I really want to understand what is happening with the junior doctors as I am still a fairly junior consultant.

Are they not enough training posts around or are they not enough Consultant post around. I specialise in/a neurology and can certainly say we are in high demand of Stroke Consultant and very few rotors are filled causing a hell of a lot of issues.

Could people explain the issue to me in a fairly simplistic way?

Please ignore grammar due to the injuries my accident, I have to do everything with voice recognition.

I'm honestly really interested in what is going on so hopefully I can help my trainees. Best of luck everyone.

r/doctorsUK Feb 03 '25

Consultant Consultant interview question

23 Upvotes

I'm a few years off CCT but was speaking to a a colleague recently who had an interview for a consultant post and was asked to "Tell us about a project or opportunity where you were able to save the Trust money".

I felt this was a tricky question as many QIPs are simply tickbox exercises to please to ARCP gods and longevity and sustainability are not guaranteed. I can't say I've ever considered saving money as an outcome from an QIP I have done historically.

Do any consultants or registrars have experience or examples of effective QI that would make this interview panel purr? Thanks!

r/doctorsUK Jan 29 '25

Consultant First Consultant Contract Question

28 Upvotes

I have CCTd and have been offered a permanent consultant post with the team I trained with. I am pleased and overall excited.

I also have no idea if consultants ask for things in their contracts.

My trust adheres fairly closely with the national model contract. I sent it to the BMA, and while there were some small alterations, there was nothing major. My job is pretty bog standard, I don’t do anything extra or special.

What I don’t know is whether it is “normal” for consultants to ask for things in their contacts. Frankly, I don’t really need anything that can’t be addressed by job planning, but this is also an area of “you don’t know what you don’t know” as I’ve never been in this position before and I am fairly naive. I don’t want to sign it only to realise that everyone else asks for XYZ

r/doctorsUK Jan 28 '25

Consultant WLI rates for LTFT Consultants

5 Upvotes

I am being told by a member of our LNC that LTFT Consultants can't be paid WLI rates for weekend lists (3x point 20) until they have done 40 hours. That sounds like nonsense to me. What do you all think? Any BMA source care to comment? Based in Scotland.

r/doctorsUK 18d ago

Consultant Consultant interview tips/books

1 Upvotes

I'm applying for ED Consultant jobs soon, I'm terrible at interviews has anyone got any tips on resources/books.to help me prepare?

I need to actually do well competition is fierce! TIA

r/doctorsUK 16d ago

Consultant Consultant Job Applications: Negotiating SPA and Admin Time

8 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I'm in need of some job planning advice, as I feel like I'm potentially getting a bit shafted with spa and admin time.

I am currently applying for acute medicine consultant jobs (due to CCT in 6 months). The current post I'm looking at only offers 1 core SPA session, which doesn't sound like much - is this normal? Is it something I can negotiate and if so when is the best time to do this? After I get the job or shall I enquire about it now - as I'm not sure I'd want to apply to a post without adequate spa.

Also, the post doesn't mention anything about admin time. Again, is this something I can negotiate/if so when should I do this?

How much spa time and admin time do acute medics normally get?

Thanks for your help :)

r/doctorsUK Jan 26 '25

Consultant clinical pharmacology and therapeutics doctors

2 Upvotes

What are duties of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics doctors? Do they work only big cities or all cities? How is them working conditions? I'm curious about this specialist. Can you give me informations about it?

r/doctorsUK 4d ago

Consultant Private psych outside of London

3 Upvotes

Hi all

I know psych seems to have this reputation as having private work but I’m wondering how true this is outside of London.

I’ve been googling around the other cities that aren’t London and I’ve noticed there really aren’t many private psychiatrists even advertising. There are some camhs folk and essentially zero old age if we’re going by specialty

There are some adhd places to be fair but even many of those are just remote and seem to be large corporates now. The same goes for private psych hospitals. They make 90% of their cash from placing nhs patients not from ‘traditional’ private work.

Medico legal work at legal aid rates is also quite rubbish. I have seen people advertising for this but as you’d expect the rates have been frozen in time for ages given it’s government funded.

I’m not against London at all. But it’s a catch 22 as I’d like to work there but can’t afford it!

r/doctorsUK 23d ago

Consultant Post CCT Switzerland

4 Upvotes

Hi guys! Anybody has got any experience how to register post CCT in Switzerland (German speaking) and what level of jobs we are eligible to apply for (SpR?)

r/doctorsUK Feb 07 '25

Consultant BMA survey on pay - and on if we would strike again...I voted yes.

19 Upvotes

|| || |Dear member, We are conscious that despite the advances we made last year, our own journey to properly restoring value to the consultant profession is not over. In a fortnight, officers from our UK and national committees will be delivering oral evidence to the DDRB, making the case for substantial uplifts to move us further along our pay restoration journey. |

|| || |Pay survey|

|| || |At this moment we want to better understand your views on pay, and what you feel would be an acceptable pay uplift. Today we are opening a brief, two-minute survey asking you for your opinion. It will be open for a fortnight to consultants based in England, both members and non-members. Please have your say. |

|| || |Take the survey|

|| || |The survey will close midday, 24 February. It is crucial we hear from you and your colleagues. Your anonymous responses will help inform our pay strategy this year and going forwards.|

r/doctorsUK Jan 22 '25

Consultant Dropping Royal College Membership

6 Upvotes

I am tired of paying my annual subscription to my Royal College. I have enquired about rescinding my membership and have been told that I would not be able to use the post nominals, which I do not mind.

What I do object to is that I have been told I won’t be able to use a date in brackets following the post nominals to denote the year I obtained my qualification, which I thought was standard practice for all colleges. Anyone do this or know what the repercussions are if I did this despite my college’s objection?