Yeovil District Hospital (YDH) is a busy small district general hospital, serving a population of about 300,000. We offer an excellent educational opportunity for trainees wishing to acquire a broad breadth of experience in the Core Medical Training (CMT) years. We have 345 acute inpatient beds, a busy 24-hour Emergency Department department, all of the major specialties and most of the sub-specialties within the Trust. Some medical sub-speciality services are provided by visiting staff from other Trusts for example Neurology (Taunton) and Renal Medicine (Dorchester).
YDH has a strong reputation for providing high quality medical training, with a clear structure of tutors and Educational Supervisors and excellent educational facilities in the Yeovil Academy.
Yeovil Academy is a modern, multi-professional centre providing education to all staff and professional groups. The Academy contains a full range of modern presentation facilities, a clinical skills laboratory, IT resources and a medical library.
Trainees do either CT1 or CT2 in Yeovil. Your 1 year CMT rotation in Yeovil will consist of 3 x 4 month posts from the following specialties: Cardiology, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Elderly Care, Emergency Admission Unit (EAU), or Respiratory Medicine.
The CMT teaching programme takes place on Wednesdays from 0930 to 1230 in conjunction with the CMT programme at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. The two sites are linked by video link which allows Yeovil-based trainees to participate without having to travel to Taunton, and Yeovil-based Consultants to do the same (though practical sessions such as BLS take place for all Taunton and Yeovil CMT trainees at Taunton).
Apart from the CMT teaching sessions, the postgraduate medical training programme comprises Grand Rounds, Journal Club, Medical Clinical Governance, Trust Clinical Governance and RCP Edinburgh Evening Medical Updates. CMT trainees are also welcome to attend departmental educational meetings for example the monthly Cardiology Echo and Pacing educational meetings.
There is regular PACES teaching leading up to exam times. Yeovil CMT trainees have a very good PACES pass rate.
Because YDH is a relatively small district general hospital the Medical Department has a typical small hospital friendly atmosphere. Medical wards are speciality-based but with a significant general medical patient population which means that the medical training and experience gained on the CMT programme is comprehensive and broad based and thus serves as a very good foundation for gaining MRCP and, further ahead, for running the medical take as a Medical Registrar.