Clinical haematology requires both clinical and laboratory expertise.
This dual role provides a unique opportunity to combine clinical skills with appropriate, often cutting-edge science to make a diagnosis; choose the optimal treatment plan; and monitor progress for a range of genetic, malignant and non-malignant disorders.
Haematology - trainee characteristics
Clinical haematology will particularly suit trainees who are:
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clinically sound
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eager to apply science to patient care
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interested in continuing care for chronic disorders
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keen to provide laboratory support for all areas of medicine.
Working/training in an ST3 haematology post
Specialty training in haematology starts with a clinically-competent generalist MRCP(UK) and develops medical and laboratory skills according to a well-structured curriculum to achieve FRCPath.
Additionally, there are a few training programmes with a paediatric haematology focus. For this reason trainees from a paediatric background are welcome to apply. Please see the 'Planning your application' tab for more information on the eligibility criteria and regions which offer paeditaric haematology training.
In the UK, haematology is an intensive, exciting and rewarding - but demanding - specialty that encompasses both clinical and laboratory practice.
As a result of this dual role, haematologists take an active part in every stage of patient management: from initial clinic visit, to laboratory assessment/diagnosis, and finally to treatment.
Holistic approach
Clinical care is delivered in both in-patient and out-patient environments and the haematologist frequently contributes to diagnosis and management in other specialties and in the intensive care setting.
This holistic approach to clinical care is a highlight of the specialty.
Research/special interests
Haematology is developing rapidly with respect to therapeutic advances, and lends itself to research.
Within haematology there is the opportunity to further develop special interests in a wide variety of clinical and laboratory areas (eg haemogloginopathies, haemostasis and thrombosis, paediatrics, transfusion medicine, malignant haematology, transplantation.)
The specialty may suit a wide variety of individuals including those who may wish to combine a clinical and academic career. The haematology consultant workforce is currently expanding.
Entry into adult haematology specialist training occurs after completion of core training (CMT, ACCS-AM) competences and requires success in the MRCP(UK) or equivalent.
The duration of specialist training is normally five years, to develop the skills for direct patient care and the management of haematology pathology laboratories.
Specialist training provides exposure to all clinical and laboratory areas, including transfusion medicine to enable the trainee to gain all the necessary competences to provide independent patient care and pass the well-established exit examination, the FRCPath.
Medical Care
Find out more about haematology and the services delivered by the specialty on Medical Care – the RCP’s online guide to service design.
Further information
Queries regarding the progress of a submitted application should be directed to the lead recruiter for this specialty. The lead recruiter for haematology in 2019 is South West Severn.
| Health Education South West - Severn | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postal address | Health Education England Level 1 Park House 1200 Parkway Newbrick Road Bristol Parkway North Stoke Gifford Bristol BS34 8YU |
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| email address | SEVRecruitment.SW@hee.nhs.uk | |||||
| website | www.severndeanery.nhs.uk | |||||
General / application queries
For general queries relating to areas such as eligibility criteria, making an application or the Oriel system, please contact the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office via email at st3medrecruitment@hee.nhs.uk.
Eligibility
Please be aware that haematology accepts applicants from paediatric training routes.
Non-physician applicants must have obtained the basic specialty professional examination (MRCPCH) in addition to specific clinical experience and competences to be eligible. Therefore applicants seeking a position in haematology must have one of the following:-
Physician training (eg CMT) - MRCP(UK) Part 1 at time of application; full MRCP(UK) by required deadline
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Paediatric training - MRCPCH Part 1 A & B at time of application; full MRCPCH by required deadline.
Please view the haematology person specification for information about the experience and competency required for applying from a paediatric training background and the deadlines for when this must be achieved.
You can download a document which advises on the extent of paediatric haematology each region is able to provide; although please note that paediatric haematology training cannot be guaranteed in any region in any given recruitment round.
Medical trainees please view the standard eligibility criteria as detailed in the am I eligible? section.
National single centre model
This specialty uses the single centre recruitment model.
You will not be required to give any preferences of particular regions when completing your application; you are applying purely for the specialty at that stage.
Later on, you will be required to give preferences of the available posts – at that point, you can opt to be considered for as many (or as few) post vacancies available nationally as you wish.
Lead region and single centre interviews
The specialty will nominate a particular region to act as lead for the round; this region is shown under the 'Who do I contact?' tab above. This lead region will review all applications, liaise with all candidates, host interviews, verify assessments, and make offers on behalf of all regions nationally.
Your application will be handled solely by the lead region throughout the entire round, up to the point where you receive and accept an offer; after which it will be transferred to the region where the post is based for pre-employment checks.
All interviews will be held at this lead region although the clinicians making up the interview panel will be drawn from a national background – ie not just from the host region.
It is possible that there could be changes between now and the interview period. Please bear this in mind when reviewing the information below, although in most cases it is not expected this will change, or any changes will be minimal. You are advised to check back in closer to the time of interview. The date at the foot of this page shows when the page was last reviewed.
Interview content
You will spend approximately 10 minutes at each of the three interview stations, with three-to-five minutes' transfer time between each. Thus the overall time for the interview will be approximately 40-45 minutes.
Click on the relevant stations below for more information on the content of the interview.
Please note that this is subject to change, and will be confirmed by the date of interview.
This is where your application form and training to date will be reviewed. This will include checking the documentation you have brought along to ensure all content on your application form is correct.
Evidence checking
Normally your evidence folder will have been reviewed by the interviewers immediately prior to your arrival in the station. They will be:
• Checking that your achievements in your evidence folder match that claimed on your application form.
• Considering your career progression to date.
• Identifying areas about which they may wish to question you during the interview.
Areas for assessment
The two main aspects of discussion here, on which you will be assessed, will be your suitability for and commitment to ST3 training in the specialty, and your achievements and engagement with training and learning to date.
Scoring at the station
It is important to recognise that the scores awarded to you at this station will not purely be about your achievements, as this already contributes towards the scoring via your application form. Interviewers will be deciding upon scores via a combination of factors, for example: your responses to the questions asked, the breadth and quality of your achievements and your career progression.
Upon arrival at station 2, you will be given a clinical scenario to review, on which you will be asked questions. Please note - you will not be given details of this prior to your arrival at the station.
Scenario considerations
The scenario details will be relatively brief (two/three sentences), and will not take long to consider. Areas to consider when reviewing the scenario are:
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what steps you would take
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any potential treatments possible
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any further information you would gather
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how you would go about communicating with any people (eg patients, family members, colleagues) involved in the scenario.
You should take into account any other factors you deem appropriate, using your experience and professional judgement.
Areas for assessment
One mark will be awarded to you based on your suggestions and responses to the clinical scenario.
Following the clinical scenario will be discussion of professionalism and governance. This discussion will be prompted by a short question (often a single sentence) provided by interviewers. This will not be given to you before arriving at the station - this will be given verbally by interviewers once the presentation is finished.
This section of the interview is designed to assess your demonstration and understanding of professionalism and governance in a given situation.
Familiarise yourself with Good Medical Practice
Please note - assessment of professionalism & governance is underpinned by the principles of GMC Good Medical Practice.
At this station you will be asked to give a presentation, which you are expected to prepare in advance on a given subject (see below). Your communication skills will also be assessed at this station.
The station will be divided into two parts - five minutes for your presentation, followed by five minutes for discussion of it and some broader issues relating to general research.
Presentation
Upon arrival at station 3, you will need to give a presentation on one of the following topics, for no more than five minutes:
'An interesting case I have been involved in'
OR:
'An interesting recent development / research finding in haematology'
Again, we stress you should only present on one of these topics, not both. When preparing your presentation, please bear in mind the points below:
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Clarity & relevance most important - Select a topic that is relevant to haematology, and which you can present with clarity. This is more important than trying to impress by choosing a subject that is esoteric or complex. It should be relevant to your application where possible.
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No aids/resources - There will be no projectors or laptops for PowerPoint, no OHPs, flip-charts, etc. You are welcome to use prompts on small cards, but these should be for your own use only, and should not be given out as hand-outs.
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Five minute time limit - Your presentation must last for no more than five minutes . Please note that you will be stopped after five minutes so as to allow further discussion to take place, so try and get your main points across before then. At the same time, bear in mind that interviewers will be assessing the level, depth and content of your presentation, as well as expecting some structure.
Interview nerves will be taken into consideration.[collapse]
Post-presentation discussion
Once your presentation is finished (interviewers will stop you at the five minute-mark), interviewers will discuss it with you and ask further questions relating to the items you raise and any further points.
This discussion will take place for approximately another five minutes.
Areas for assessment
The first area for which you will receive a score at station 3 will be your presentation and its accompanying discussion; essentially, this mark will reflect your understanding of the subject matter, as displayed via your presentation and the accompanying dicussion.
The second mark will be on the communication skills you display.
This will be both an assessment of how you would communicate with patients, colleagues, etc. in the scenario, as well as of how well you communicate with interviewers at the station.
Establishing appointability
Appointable - automatic
If you are awarded a score of at least 3/5, for all marks given to you at your interview, then you will automatically be classed as appointable.
Not appointable - automatic
If any of the 12 scores awarded to you at interview are 1/5, this will reflect poor performance and an area of major concern.
If three or more of your 12 interview scores are of 2/5, this will reflect several areas of concern across your whole interview.
Should your interview assessment falls under either category above, the level of concern over your potential progression to ST3 will see your application classed automatically as not appointable .
Appointability subject to panel decision
In the event that your 12 interview scores contain one or two marks of 2/5 (and the rest 3/5 or above), your appointability status will be subject to discussion in the post-interview 'wash-up' meeting.
The clinicians who have interviewed you will discuss your general performance during the interview and any concerns or otherwise they have about your application as a whole.
Should they deem it appropriate, your application will be classed as appointable, and you can then be considered for post offers; whereas if they feel their concerns are too substantial for this outcome, they must class your application as not appointable, and it will progress no further in the current recruitment round.
Review vs automatic status
Please note there is no distinction made between candidates judged as appointable automatically, and those classed as appointable on review. Once deemed appointable it is only your overall score which will be used to determine ranking.
Total score calculation
After interview, a weighting is applied to the scores in each area, as well as the application form score, to give a 'total score'. This score determines your ranking which is used to inform how offers are made. The weighting of different sections, as well as the method by which your total score is established, can be seen by clicking on 'Total score calculation' below.
Please note that this is subject to change, and will be confirmed by the date of interview.
| Int. 1 | Int. 2 | Weighting | Max score | |
| Station 1 | ||||
| Evidence | / 5 | / 5 | x1.6 | / 16 |
| Suitability for specialty | / 5 | / 5 | x1.2 | / 12 |
| Station 2 | ||||
| Clinical scenario | / 5 | / 5 | x1.6 | / 16 |
| Professionalism and governance | / 5 | / 5 | x1.2 | / 12 |
| Station 3 | ||||
| Presentation research | / 5 | / 5 | x1.6 | / 16 |
| Communication mark | / 5 | / 5 | x0.8 | / 8 |
| Raw interview score | / 60 | |||
| Interview score (including weighting) | / 80 | |||
| Short-listing (app form) | / 80 | x0.25 | / 20 | |
| Overall assessment score | / 100 | |||
As part of the process of applying to ST3, you may wish to gain an idea of how recruitment progressed in previous years for the various specialties participating in the nationally-coordinated recruitment.
To this end, we have published data dating back to 2013 (where this is available), based around four main areas:
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Competition ratios - application numbers submitted to each specialty, along with the number of NTN and LAT posts available in each. It is worth noting that posts are subject to change throughout the round (increasing on average between 20-40%), and post numbers for this data are taken at the end of the round.
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Shortlist scores - the scores awarded to all submitted applications, including average scores and distribution nationally.
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Total scores - the total score awarded to all candidates who completed the full recruitment process for a specialty (application and interview), including some analysis of scores.
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Post fill rates - the number of posts filled by region.
We have published information for all specialties participating in our process that year; consequently not all specialties will have data in all cases.
Round 1
| Year | Apps. | NTN posts | LAT posts | Total posts | Comp. | Unique* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 120 | 74 | 1 | 75 | 1.6 | 69% |
| 2017 | 131 | 80 | 0 | 80 | 1.6 | 67% |
| 2016 | 125 | 88 | 1 | 89 | 1.4 | 64% |
| 2015 | 135 | 58 | 12 | 70 | 1.9 | 75% |
* the percentage of unique candidates that only applied to this specialty (out of the 24 PSRO-coordinated specialties)
Round 2
| Year | Apps. | NTN posts | LAT posts | Total posts | Comp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 41 | 33 | 0 | 33 | 1.2 |
| 2017 | 46 | 34 | 0 | 34 | 1.4 |
| 2016 | 22 | 32 | 0 | 32 | 0.7 |
| 2015 | 33 | 26 | 0 | 26 | 1.3 |
Provisional post numbers
Specialty vacancy numbers are available in the table below, broken down by region and divided between substantive national training number (NTN) and locum appointment for training (LAT) posts.
It is the intention that initial post numbers for all regions will be published prior to the application opening date, although this cannot be guaranteed. Numbers will be updated as and when notifications are received from each region and will be checked later in the round when programme preferences are open for selection.
Numbers subject to change
Please be aware that it is not uncommon for vacancy numbers to change throughout the round.
More commonly, post vacancy numbers can increase as the round goes on (and confirmation of posts becomes available); but it is also possible that numbers can reduce as well. On average post numbers rise between 20-40% from the start to the finish of the round but this can vary greatly for individual specialty/region combinations.
It is possible that regions which do not have a post at the start of the round may declare one after applications have closed. Whilst we try and minimise instances of this, it is not always possible to predict vacancies so even if there appears not to be a vacancy in your preferred specialty/region combination, you may wish to consider applying in case one becomes available during the round; you can check with the region concerned if you wish to check on the likelihood of a post arising.
Generally, once a region enter a post into a round they would always have at least one post available and would only withdraw it in exceptional circumstances.
Round 1 Interview dates & post numbers
| Region | NTN posts | LAT posts* | Interview date(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands |
3-7 |
n/a |
South West (lead) |
| East of England | 0-3 | n/a | |
|
London KSS |
4-13 |
n/a | |
| North East | 0-3 | n/a | |
| North West |
Mersey |
n/a | |
|
North Western |
n/a | ||
| South West (lead) |
4-8 |
n/a | |
| Thames Valley | 3-5 | n/a | |
| Wessex | 0-2 | n/a | |
| West Midlands | 1-7 | n/a | |
| Yorkshire & Humber |
2-4 |
n/a | |
| Scotland** | 12 | TBC | |
| Wales | 1 | TBC |
*English LATs
Please note, English regions do not recruit to LAT posts.
**Scotland post numbers
If you are interested in working in Scotland, a breakdown of post numbers by the four Scottish deaneries is available on the Scottish Medical Training website. This has details of all specialty training post numbers in Scotland, including specialties which are not part of the nationally-coordinated process.
Please note that whilst we endeavour to keep the Physician ST3 recruitment website up to date, the SMT website will always be the more accurate one where they differ.