Round 1 of coordinated CMT recruitment for England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been completed successfully. Eighty eight percent of candidates were considered appointable. The percent applying directly from Foundation was slightly lower (75% v 83% in 2010) in keeping with an increased likelihood that
Foundation trainees will undertake alternative experience before applying to specialty training. The current fill rate (92%; 1073 of 1167 posts) is higher than at the equivalent point last year, and seven deaneries report all posts filled. Round 2 of CMT recruitment is underway, with 555 applications for 73 posts
(interview capacity of 270). Complete fill is predicted, but individual deaneries will need to balance the requirements for additional training time for current trainees against the need and wish of Foundation trainees to enter CMT.
Interestingly, analysis of all CT/ST1 applicants (not just those who applied to CMT) shows that 57% applied to only one specialty. This demonstrates that confidence in recruitment has grown considerably during the
3 years that the RCP and others have been coordinating national recruitment. The majority of trainees now trust the systems sufficiently well to apply only to their chosen specialty, without the need to make multiple ‘back-up’ applications - which have a perverse (negative) effect on the matching of applicants with their desired specialty. The proposed UK offers system (based on the Scottish NES recruitment system) to be introduced in 2012 will assist with algorithms for offering preferred posts to those that have made more than one national application, thus making the offering system more efficient for all CT1 and ST1 posts.
The RCP-coordinated specialties (acute medicine, cardiology, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, GU medicine, haematology, neurology, palliative medicine, renal medicine, respiratory medicine for England and Wales) are nearing the end of
Round 1. Over 400 interview questions have been developed, vetted and distributed for 133 sets of specialty interviews. Application patterns are much as expected, with some specialties proving more popular than others. Popularity tends to relate to specialties which are experienced by CMT trainees; smaller specialties are an ‘unknown’. Additionally, trainees may regard specialties with very few post numbers nationally as inevitably over-subscribed - this is not always the case. Please see the table below for competition ratios.
There is concern about the 2009 cohort of CMT trainees, who hope to start ST3 training later this year.
They are the first cohort required to have the full MRCP(UK) diploma to exit successfully from CMT. Analysis has shown a wide variation in exam pass rates. Overall, over 70% of applicants (and this includes applicants from non-CMT pathways) to the RCP-hosted ST3 specialties have the full examination. Those without the full diploma hope to pass the outstanding parts of the examination (for the most part this means PACES) in the summer diet. The exams dept are sending results directly to the deanery recruiting team, to speed up employment eligibility checking. In 2012, the Medical Programme Board have declared that candidates must have the full MRCPUK by the first week in May in order to be able to receive an offer. This potentially leaves more ST3 gaps because CMT trainees who pass the exam just before the end of the CMT programme will not be eligible to apply for an ST3 post in Round 1 of ST3 recruitment. However, the DH and NHS
Employers felt that the risk of a candidate being unable to take up a post at the last minute, having failed to pass in the Summer PACES diet, outweighed the risk of gaps known in advance. In mitigation, the MRCPUK department will establish an annual pass mark at the beginning of the training year, enabling candidates to obtain PACES results much more quickly. Additionally, the question of ‘retakes’ is being considered.
It is predicted that some ST3 specialties will have gaps in August. This is not a new situation, and the RCP recruitment team recognise this, and are already planning an Autumn Round 2. This round will include any
Liz Berkin deputy medical director JRCPTB CMTrecruitment@rcplondon.ac.uk
ST3recruitment@rcplondon.ac.uk

unfilled posts, and also any new posts arising before April 2012. Specialties considering joining the RCPhosted system in 2012 could consider joining RCP-hosted Round 2 by way of an introduction to the process.
Please contact us for further details.
Numbers for some small specialties are not known at the time of writing.
Please note that ST3 applications were largely unrestricted. Therefore, because of multiple applications, the
application to post ratio is higher than the candidate to post ratio
Specialty
Acute Medicine
Allergy
Audiological Medicine
Cardiology
Clinical Genetics
Clinical Neurophysiology
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Dermatology
Endocrinology and Diabetes
Gastroenterology
GIM
GUM
Geriatric Medicine
Haematology
Immunology
Infectious diseases and Tropical Medicine
Medical Oncology
Medical ophthalmology
Metabolic Medicine
Neurology
Nuclear Medicine
Occupational Medicine (recruitment not annualized)
Palliative Medicine
Paediatric cardiology
Rehabilitation Medicine
Renal Medicine
Respiratory Medicine
Rheumatology
Sport and Exercise Medicine
Total for 20 med ST3 specialties
10
21
46
44
Posts Applications received Applications to post ratio
65 351 5.4
39
15
607
15
15.6
1.0
22
59
57
26
7
25
6 n/a
26
20
24
43
30
15
600
21
92
265
441
74
307
249
94
8
161
9 n/a
124
28
157
407
120
31
3561
2.1
4.4
5.8
10.0
3.6
1.1
6.4
1.5
3.5
5.2
4.4
4.8
1.4
6.5
9.5
4.0
2.1
6
Liz Berkin deputy medical director JRCPTB CMTrecruitment@rcplondon.ac.uk
ST3recruitment@rcplondon.ac.uk