There are two main places to find out the eligibility criteria and whether you are eligible:
- All the eligibility criteria are listed in the person specification.
- The Am I eligible? section of this website gives detailed information about each area of eligibility.
Beyond this, if you have a specific question which is not covered in the sources above, you can contact the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office with your query.
All four UK nations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, are participating in the nationally coordinated IMT recruitment process.
Summary information about each region is available in the regions section of the website, including links for more information. Here, you will also find contact information for any region should you need additional information.
All IMT and ACCS-IM posts are recruited for at IM1 level. There is no national recruitment into IM2, however it may still be possible for candidates to enter at an accelerated level.
After appointment, and depending on experience, it may be deemed appropriate for some trainees to progress through training more quickly; however this is solely at the discretion of the employing region, and all decisions will be made after starting the programme.
The JRCPTB website has more information on the possibility of accelerated training.
Please note that it is difficult to predict the level of competition for posts across regions as things can change from year to year. However, there is various information on the website with data from previous years to give an indication about potential competition:
- Competition ratios - application numbers divided by the total number of posts in the Previous years' data page. Additionally, information about the relative competitiveness of each region, based on the ranking of candidates accepting offers, can be found in the document library.
- Shortlist scores – the average application score, the distribution of scores nationally and the minimum scores to qualify for interview at each region from recent years are in the document library
- Total scores - the average total score awarded after the full recruitment process (application and interview), including a graph showing the distribution of scores nationally are in the document library
- Post fill-rates - the number of posts available and the number filled by region in both rounds and overall are also found in the document library.
Please visit the dates & posts page of this website for information about the availability and location of posts, both in IMT and ACCS-IM.
For more detailed information, contact any region which you are considering. Contact details for all can be found on the regions page of this website.
You can but this will not happen at time of application.
When you apply you are applying to be considered for all programmes across the UK. During the process those invited to interview will be given the opportunity to preference specific programmes from all UK regions. In most cases this will include rotation level information, for example:
Year 1 will be in hospital X with four months in each of respiratory medicine, geriatric medicine and neurology. Year 2 will be in hospital Y with four months in each of cardiology, acute internal medicine and medical oncology.
Most regions are not able to provide full information year 3 as it is difficult to predict how many will go on to complete the full three years and how many will exit after two.
The timing of when you will choose your preferences will be published in the timeline for the round. You can find more information about choosing your programme preferences and offers in the relevant sections of the website.
If you want to work less than full time (LTFT), you progress through the recruitment process in the same way as all other applicants. Offers are made on the basis of a full time programme and you make your request to your employing region once you accept an offer.
All regions are committed to helping those with who have well-founded reasons for wanting to train on an LTFT basis. The Gold Guide contains more information.There is a national ‘special circumstances’ policy which apply in specified circumstances. This applies to applicants where either:
- the applicant is the primary carer for someone who is disabled, as defined by the Equality Act 2010
- the applicant has a medical condition or disability for which ongoing follow up for the condition in the specified location is an absolute requirement
Within the resource bank of Oriel there is an Oriel Applicant User Guide that has been developed to give you a better understanding of the Oriel system and explains how the system can be used to enable your application process.
If after using this you are still experiencing issues; you can contact the PSRO using the contact details on the contacts page. This includes if your account is locked due to too many failed password attempts.
If necessary your issue will be forwarded by the PSRO to the Oriel support team for investigation and you will be updated with progress.
There is not a formal linking process or function on the system.
The advice is to select the same regions and ordering of programme preferences. You can also bear in mind the likely competition for each region in relation to how you think you and your partner will do; for example it will be more difficult for you to both receive an offer in London than in some other regions.
Additionally the system has been designed so that after offers are received it is possible to re-order your preferences to improve your chances of being offered the same region. For example:
- you are offered region A and your partner region B
- if it looks unlikely your partner is going to rank highly enough for region A you could change your preferences so that region B is now ranked above region A.
- it is then possible that during the offering period, region A could be upgraded to region B
- alternatively you could both re-order your preferences to make region C your first choices so you could both be upgraded to this.
If necessary please contact the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office for advice.
A trainee is now able to apply for an Inter-deanery transfer (IDT) having not yet started a post – but you must have been made and accepted an offer.
You must also have a minimum of 12 calendar months left in training at the earliest point of transfer for your IDT request to be considered.
Inter-deanery transfers are only possible if the proposed destination region has a vacant slot that can accommodate your remaining training requirements. Not all approved transfers will actually be able to transfer.
Inter-deanery transfers are nationally coordinated; the MDRS Specialty Training website has details about the scheme.
Your Oriel PIN is the second-to-last number of the Application ID (discounting the zeros at the start), for example in the full application ID given below, the PIN would be 2368.
PSRO-IMT/21-22/PWY/0106527625/IMT-1-R1A/00000 2368 /00630
Your Oriel PIN is also located in the summary section of your Oriel Dashboard in the top left hand corner.
The Gold Guide states that:
"...the start of training may only be deferred on statutory grounds (eg maternity leave, ill health)."
This includes a period of illness or maternity leave taken during foundation training prior to making an application. Where applicants are unable to achieve competence on time, they may still apply and may be permitted to defer whilst they complete the time/competences missed. Extended training will need to be organised in the current post to cover the time that was missed.
If your particular circumstances will make it necessary for the start date of any post offered to you to be deferred or delayed, but are not covered by the text above, then please contact the region at which you wish to work.
Upon receiving an offer, you should contact the region of offer to ensure they are aware of your desire to defer your start date and ensure this will be permissible. The final decision on whether a start date can be deferred is at the discretion of the region.
Whilst it is unusual for something to go wrong at interview, it is very important that if something does you raise it on the day, before you leave the centre. This will give the best possible chance to investigate and resolve the issue.
If you do not raise it on the day you should email the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office as soon as possible after the interview. Unfortunately it may not be possible to do anything but the earlier you raise it the better; you should not wait until offers are made.