Training Programme Directors – Dr Katie Frew & Dr Eleanor Grogan
Programme Support Officer – Dave Roxborough
HR Officer, Lead Employer Trust – Ally Ashwell & Christian Collins (email)
Why choose Palliative Medicine?
Palliative Medicine offers the opportunity to work closely with patients who have life limiting illnesses and their families in a variety of settings. There is often the opportunity to follow patients across different care settings and develop close relationships / continuity of care. It spans all medical specialties and requires a high degree of clinical acumen. The job is rewarding in that physical, psychological, social and spiritual elements of the patients’ needs are addressed.
As a doctor in training what can I expect from my training programme?
Palliative medicine is a four-year training programme that is delivered alongside Internal Medicine stage two training. You will rotate around different hospices, hospitals, and community settings in the region, being on call for a hospice or palliative care service throughout your training. As well as gaining experience in Internal Medicine, you will also gain experience in other specialities that tare relevant to Palliative Medicine such as Oncology.
You will work in rural and urban areas and gain an understanding of the opportunities and challenges offered by these settings. You will work in hospices, in the community, seeing patients at home or in nursing homes and in hospitals (both tertiary and district general hospitals). You will also have the chance to work in regional cancer centres.
In NHS England North East, a trainee can expect to rotate through some combination of the following placements, always linked to a base post.
| Base post |
Placements frequently linked to base post |
| Alice House Hospice, Hartlepool |
North Tees and Hartlepool Community Palliative Care
|
|
North Tees Hospital NHS FT
|
| James Cook University Hospital Cancer centre |
| Marie Curie Hospice, Newcastle |
Gateshead Health NHS FT (community and hospital placements)
|
|
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT (community and hospital placements)
|
| Northern Centre for Cancer Care |
| Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust |
Northumbria Healthcare NHS FT palliative care units, community, and hospital placements |
| St Benedict’s Hospice, Sunderland |
South Tyneside FT (community palliative care)
|
| City Hospitals Sunderland FT |
| St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham |
County Durham and Darlington NHS FT (Durham hospital and community placements ) |
| St Oswald’s Hospice, Newcastle |
Gateshead Health NHS FT (community and hospital placements)
|
|
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS FT (community and hospital placements)
|
| Northern Centre for Cancer Care |
| Teesside Hospice, Middlesborough |
South Tees Hospital NHS FT |
|
South Tees Community Palliative Care
|
| James Cook University Hospital Cancer centre |
It is possible to gain entry into Palliative medicine training through successful completion of both a foundation programme and a core training programme. There are two core training programmes, which can enable entry onto a Palliative medicine training programme:
- Internal Medicine
- Acute Care Common Stem - Internal Medicine (ACCS-IM)
For more information about the speciality, please see the programme guide on the Palliative Medicine | JRCPTB website.
To find out more information about current vacancies please view the HEE Website