General Medicine is the largest field of medicine in terms of the number of different pathways and individual specialisms. This Blog Article aims to provide specific insight into Gastroenterology and what to expect when working as a Gastroenterologist within the NHS.
As an international recruitment company, BDI Resourcing recommend that aspiring Gastroenterologists, wanting to work in the NHS, take the MRCP route to their GMC Registration.
Gastroenterologists within the NHS are expected to develop and run endoscopy services for diagnostic, therapeutic and screening endoscopy. Commonly, Gastroenterologists will divide their time between running specialist gastrointestinal and liver clinics, carrying out endoscopies, attending multidisciplinary meetings, conducting ward rounds, attending to administration and admitting new patients.
The number of patients seen in a day varies. In outpatients, you could see up to eight new patients or 12 follow ups per four hour clinic or a mixture of new and follow up patients. A specialist doing two endoscopy lists in a day could see about 12 to 24 patients; but some cases are more complex and involve longer procedures such as the removal of polyps or gall stones.
Gastroenterologists within the NHS will participate in on call rotas. Being on-call can be demanding as you are likely to be called in for procedures such as emergency endoscopy. Most gastroenterologists are also part of the acute general medical on-call, which means they manage acute gastro and non-gastro admissions.
Additionally, it is important to note that when working as a Gastroenterologist you should expect to work alongside a variety of other NHS staff including specialist nurses, surgeons, diagnostic and interventional radiologists, pathologists, oncologists, clinical research teams and A&E Doctors.
Of course, whilst it is impossible to predict the daily procedures and interventions you may be carrying out on a day to day basis within the NHS, you will commonly be carrying out:
Whilst there are a number of different specialty interests associated with Gastroenterology, it is important to note that Hepatology is the only GMC approved subspecialty of Gastroenterology. This means that when (and if) applying for specialist registration, Hepatology is the single choice for a listed sub specialty. In order to receive this sub-specialty certificate in hepatology, a Doctor must spend a total of two years training in liver disease having previously enrolled in the gastroenterology training programme.
As previously mentioned, whilst Hepatology is the only approved sub specialty certification, Doctors may have a specific sub specialty interest. These may include but are not limited to:
If you are an international Gastroenterologist with MRCP who would like to relocate to the UK, email your CV to [email protected] and we can support you in securing an NHS post and on your journey to relocate to the UK.
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Health Careers. 2020. Working Life (Gastroenterology). [online] Available at: <https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/doctors/roles-doctors/medicine/gastroenterology/working-life> [Accessed 26 August 2020].
Gmc-uk.org. 2020. Hepatology Curriculum. [online] Available at: <https://www.gmc-uk.org/education/standards-guidance-and-curricula/curricula/hepatology-curriculum> [Accessed 26 August 2020].
Health Careers. 2020. Gastroenterology. [online] Available at: <https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/doctors/roles-doctors/medicine/gastroenterology> [Accessed 26 August 2020].
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