Specialty Registrars should expect to spend around 2-3 years in District General Hospitals and 2-3 years in the Cardiothoracic Surgical Centre.

In the early years on training and whilst based outside the surgical centre there will be an on-call commitment to General (Internal) Medicine.

The development of cardiac departments across the region has enhanced the opportunity for training with sub-specialty services such as PCI, Device therapy and Electrophysiology now offered by many District General Hospitals.

Training is provided across the region in:

  • General Cardiology
  • Angiography
  • Percutaneous Coronary Intervention including Primary PCI
  • Pacemaker implantation
  • Device (CRT/ICD) therapy
  • Arrhythmia management and Electrophysiology
  • Heart Failure
  • Echocardiography including Dobutamine Stress Echo and TOE
  • Nuclear Cardiology
  • CT/CMR Imaging
  • GUCH

PCI (including Primary PCI in some centres) is well established in Bristol, Taunton, Cheltenham, Bath, Swindon and Frenchay (North Bristol Trust)

As trainees’ career aspirations take shape every effort is made to accommodate requests for sub-specialty training

Training Days

Regular training days are arranged throughout the year and reflect the current core curriculum in Cardiology. These days are shared with SpRs from the South West Peninsular.

Educational Supervisors

There is a named Educational Supervisor in each of the hospitals on the Rotation

ARCP

Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) will take place in line with the requirements for training laid out by the RCP/JRCPTB. DOPs, Mini CEX, Knowledge based assessments and Multi source feedback will be adopted for all new trainees.