FAQs

Core Psychiatry Training is a three-year programme where trainees rotate around a number of placements. This enables trainees to gain vast experience in various aspects in psychiatry. In a standard Core Psychiatry programme, candidates will rotate every 6 months (the 1st Wednesday of February and August of every year).

During core psychiatry training, you will have the opportunity of developing necessary skills for assessing psychiatric conditions, mental state examinations , basic psychotherapy skills with supervised therapy cases, management of various clinical situations and much more. Progress in all aspects is monitored via workplace based assessments (WBPA) on an online e-portfolio.

All trainees will be appraised throughout their core psychiatry training. Please refer to the Core Training Appraisal Process.

You will be allocated to a supervisor in each post, responsible for supervising your clinical activity and providing an hour of weekly one-to-one clinical /psychiatric supervision. You will also have an educational supervisor providing longer term guidance throughout your core training programme. All sites have a local tutor who will oversee the progress of the trainee.

There is a weekly academic meeting in all centres across the Core Training Programme. All Core Trainees have access to psychotherapy training, including attendance at a Balint Group. All Core Trainees are expected to attend the Core Psychiatry Training Course.

All Trainees’ timetables are designed to allow them guaranteed access to the Core Psychiatry Training Course and study leave support available.

There are 102 approved training posts across North West London Core Psychiatry Training scheme to choose from. These posts are within the two(2) providers - WL and CNWL localities. Approved training posts’ specialties includes General Adult, Older Adult, CAMHS, LD and Forensic while sub-specialties posts includes Eating Disorder, Addictions and Psychotherapy.

Two years of MRCPsych course paper A & B programme; once you have passed the two written exams (Paper A and B) and one clinical exam (CASC) which make up the Membership exams of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, you become a full Member of the Royal College of Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and will be eligible to apply for higher training programme.

The programme will support you to meet the standard and requirements of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Core Curriculum and Examination Syllabus.

The programme will support you to meet the standards of the General Medical Council’s ‘Good Medical Practice Guidelines’. http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/good_medical_practice.asp

On-Call and Out of Hours (OOH) Duty has long been recognised as a vital component of the clinical experience that underpins the training of medical doctors.

On arrival, doctor should inform the site location reception of their arrival and confirm their contact details.

There are essentially 2 types of shift, weekdays and weekends.

Weekdays:

i. 17:00 – 21:30 hrs
ii. 21:00 – 09.30hrs

Weekends:

i. 09:00 – 21:30hrs
ii. 21:00 – 9:30hrs:

Daytime Duty Service to provide daytime ‘Duty Doctor’ cover. The Duty Doctor holds the assigned bleep and mobile phone. There are 2 consecutive shifts per day, Morning, 9am – 1pm and Afternoon 1 pm to 5pm. The Duty Doctor essentially covers the Duty Service and occasionally the wards if for any urgent reason the usual Ward Doctor or the Floating Locum is unavailable.

There are 4 on call medical handovers per day and all takes place promptly Face-to–Face.

Trust Guidance requires:

Face to face handover between outgoing and incoming on-call doctors.

The doctor going off duty should report on the following matters:

Outstanding new patient assessments – those in the Emergency Department or Assessment Unit should take priority, unless there are more urgent clinical matters elsewhere.

Patients who have been recently admitted. All newly admitted inpatients should be reviewed daily until handed over to the consultant’s team

Issues on the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit – including patients detained under Section 136 MHA, and those in seclusion.

Problems with current inpatients – particularly where patients are likely to require further assessment.

Investigations to be done – e.g. physical examination, blood tests, ECGs.

Other issues that may arise during the next shift.

All sites have a written proforma for on call handover which should be completed during the shift duty in preparation for the next on-call doctor. Hand this to the next on-call doctor if there are outstanding issues to deal with.

Seek advice as there is always senior cover during your on-call; do not hesitate to call the second on-call or consultant if you have any questions or concerns during your shift. Be prepared to discuss any interesting or challenging cases in clinical supervision.

There is a pharmacist on-call who can help with medication queries. If you are not able to get hold of the on-call consultant there is also a senior nurse and manger on call if support is needed.

Higher General Adult Psychiatry/Older Adult Psychiatry training is a training programme for those who have completed their Core Psychiatry Training and wish to specialise in GA and/or OA Psychiatry. The length of the training programme depends on whether you wish to specialise in GA only or incorporate OA Psychiatry to become dual accredited. GA only training takes 3 years and dual accreditation takes 4 years. Regardless of which you choose to specialise in, you will rotate through various placements to cover the curriculum requirement set by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. On the completion of your programme, you will be awarded a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), which will allow you to practise as a consultant in your chosen speciality. If you complete 12 months in Liaison, Addictions or Rehab Psychiatry, you can also accredit in these specialties.

There are 60 approved training posts across North West London to choose from. These posts are based within two providers - Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and West London NHS Trust

Trainees are offered two Protected Professional Development (formerly known as Special Interest) sessions per week. These include opportunities across a number of disciplines. Please go to the GA/OA programmes section on this website for a comprehensive list

To progress through training, each year you must pass an Annual Record of Competency Progression (ARCP) review with Health Education England. The ARCP requirements are highlighted in detail as part of the curriculum, which you can find on the Royal College of Psychiatrists website