Army Rumour Service

Register a free account today to join our community
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site, connect with other members through your own private inbox and will receive smaller adverts!

Ex Army, new Doc

STr8bloke, I have considered the TA but I haven't got very far into looking at it. I'm worried that a TA commitment might see me in Afghanistan sooner then later and distracted from studying due to the training commitment as opposed to the cadetship where I am paid and left alone for 3 years.

If you had some info to hand for a TA med unit in London I'd be very grateful.

I don't have any info to hand, but a quick Googlesearch of "TA Medical Units London" should bring some up.
Afghan may not be everyone's cup of tea but it'll look good on your CV, bring your practical and management skills and will help if you end up working in a part of London that been ethnically complicated. You could also treat good people who really need it. I understand that TA med types can choose to do a 3 month tour, think of it as a better altermnative to some northern hospital!

Thanks very much everyone. There is much to think about![/QUOTE]
 
144 Para Sqn is the only one in London after a cursory search. I'm certainly not up to P Coy so that looks unlikely.

Oh well... no rush anyway!
 
Medevac
As an army surgeon, I can give you some firm answers to your questions. Career paths for docs joining the forces mirror those in civvy street to a certain extent. You will have to complete house jobs/ foundation training (junior doc on the wards) for 2 years after med school then you will do a tour as a general duties doc (not RMO, you need to be accredited as a GP to do that job) where you will probably be based in a med regt and do an operational tour in a FOB (assuming we are still there in 6 years time). After 2-3 years general duties you can then enter specialist training.

If you want to be a surgeon (and who wouldn't)then you will have a minimum of 8-10 further years of training which is highly competitive. The entry standards are the same as civ jobs and in response to the comments of "faux legitimacy" Army candidates at recent interview panels have generally come in the top bracket of trainee surgeons when compared to their civ counterparts. At the moment we are near full manning in most surgical specialities so there may only be 1 or 2 training posts per year (with about 5 trainees chasing each number) and we will only take the best applicants forward. Others need to choose another career option or become civvies.

Basically you are going to be in competitive training for 10 years after you finish med school with 2 sets of Royal College exams and possible annual exams depending on which region you train in- it will be hard work especially if you have family. If you do join up it will delay your surgical training by a couple of years but we currently offer some of the best training in the country to balance that out

Also note that we currently have over recruited junior docs and so there will be about 1/3 the number of cadetships going this year.

Good luck!
 

New posts

Top