Oxford foundation school

Hello,

I have just been allocated to the Oxford foundation programme and need to rank the trusts then the individual programmes. I was wondering if anyone had any advice regarding which hospitals or programmes are the best for training, or any experiences of working in the Oxford deanery that they could share?

Thanks!

Reply 1

AnonymousPenguin

16

Havent worked in the deanery of as an F1, but I have heard vague rumors that Reading is a good place to work. If I were staying in the area for F1, I would imagine I would want to go there.

Reply 2

Becca-Sarah

19

Original post by Anonymous

Hello,

I have just been allocated to the Oxford foundation programme and need to rank the trusts then the individual programmes. I was wondering if anyone had any advice regarding which hospitals or programmes are the best for training, or any experiences of working in the Oxford deanery that they could share?

Thanks!

I've worked at Oxford and Bucks, but can't comment on the others. Have enjoyed both, probably preferred Oxford as I enjoyed the individual jobs more, the scheduled teaching was better, generally found it quite friendly despite being a large teaching hospital. It kinda depends what you want to do during FY - Oxford has specialist stuff like neurosurgery (F2), paeds surgery (F1/2), transplant (F1 - not sure if F2 also), that you can't do elsewhere in the deanery.

Happy to answer more fully if you have any specific questions?

Reply 3

Helenia

20

I'm a higher specialty trainee in the deanery, but did foundation elsewhere, so don't know specifics of foundation jobs. RBH (Reading) seems to be popular with everyone. I was at OUH last year and it is a huge trust doing loads of amazing stuff, but I found it a bit impersonal and not so friendly, though I'm not sure if the same is true for foundation trainees - Oxford's ST3 anaesthetics year is notoriously horrible!

Currently at MK and enjoying it. It's not so popular with trainees because its location is less good, especially if living in Oxford (but if you aren't tied to Oxford, MK is actually a nice place to live, considerably cheaper and with much less traffic!), and it used to be really terrible, but over the last 5 or so years it has really pulled its socks up and generally has a good reputation for training. It's probably just a DGH vs teaching hospital thing, but I feel much more settled here and have got to know a whole range of people really well.

Reply 4

fishfacesimpson

9

I did f1 and f2 in OUH. The jobs are generally very busy but training in terms of experience is excellent. Scheduled teaching when I was there happened regularly but in f1 inconsistent in terms of quality. May have changed though. There see/were some jobs that were specialist as above (immunology was one!) but they can offer good exposure.

JR is a big teaching hospital but by and large friendly with an active mess. Lots of tertiary stuff at the Churchill and although old parts of the hospital dated also nice to work in. Horton is a typical small dgh but has a nice atmosphere and consultants helpful and friendly. Drive from Oxford is about 40 minutes and no traffic usually

Oxford is a lovely place to live although not really cheap. London is accessible 24/7 by bus or train which is nice too.

All in all f1 and f2 were really busy but two of the best years of my life. Loved it although we had a great cohort.

I don't know much about the rest of the deanery but reading always got a lot of praise as a great (busy too) place to work

Reply 5

Anonymous #2

Original post by Becca-Sarah

I've worked at Oxford and Bucks, but can't comment on the others. Have enjoyed both, probably preferred Oxford as I enjoyed the individual jobs more, the scheduled teaching was better, generally found it quite friendly despite being a large teaching hospital. It kinda depends what you want to do during FY - Oxford has specialist stuff like neurosurgery (F2), paeds surgery (F1/2), transplant (F1 - not sure if F2 also), that you can't do elsewhere in the deanery.

Happy to answer more fully if you have any specific questions?

Thanks

Did you work at the Horton, Nuffield or Churhcill at any point and what did you think of them? And how did you find your individual rotations in terms of workload, senior support, training and teaching opportunities? Finally, did you find most trainees lived in houses or hospital accommodation or was it a fair mix? PM me if you would rather? :smile:

Reply 6

Anonymous #2

Original post by fishfacesimpson

I did f1 and f2 in OUH. The jobs are generally very busy but training in terms of experience is excellent. Scheduled teaching when I was there happened regularly but in f1 inconsistent in terms of quality. May have changed though. There see/were some jobs that were specialist as above (immunology was one!) but they can offer good exposure.

JR is a big teaching hospital but by and large friendly with an active mess. Lots of tertiary stuff at the Churchill and although old parts of the hospital dated also nice to work in. Horton is a typical small dgh but has a nice atmosphere and consultants helpful and friendly. Drive from Oxford is about 40 minutes and no traffic usually

Oxford is a lovely place to live although not really cheap. London is accessible 24/7 by bus or train which is nice too.

All in all f1 and f2 were really busy but two of the best years of my life. Loved it although we had a great cohort.

I don't know much about the rest of the deanery but reading always got a lot of praise as a great (busy too) place to work

Thanks

Did you work at the Horton, Nuffield or Churhcill at any point and what did you think of them? And how did you find your individual rotations in terms of workload, senior support, training and teaching opportunities? Finally, did you find most trainees lived in houses or hospital accommodation or was it a fair mix? PM me if you would rather? :smile:

Reply 7

Becca-Sarah

19

Original post by Anonymous

Thanks

Did you work at the Horton, Nuffield or Churhcill at any point and what did you think of them? And how did you find your individual rotations in terms of workload, senior support, training and teaching opportunities? Finally, did you find most trainees lived in houses or hospital accommodation or was it a fair mix? PM me if you would rather? :smile:

I can't PM you because you're posting as Anonymous...

Most people live in rented places in Headington/Cowley. There were a reasonable number in hospital accommodation at the start of the year because of being unable to find a place before August (e.g. I couldn't get to Oxford beforehand to go house hunting) but I don't think many stayed the whole year.

Reply 8

Dr S.K

Original post by Anonymous

Hello,

I have just been allocated to the Oxford foundation programme and need to rank the trusts then the individual programmes. I was wondering if anyone had any advice regarding which hospitals or programmes are the best for training, or any experiences of working in the Oxford deanery that they could share?

Thanks!

Hey i got in oxford too..have u submitted your Toi form. I have been trying to contact them to get the postal address but no one is replying. Could u please help

Thanks

Reply 9

fishfacesimpson

9

Original post by Anonymous

Thanks

Did you work at the Horton, Nuffield or Churhcill at any point and what did you think of them? And how did you find your individual rotations in terms of workload, senior support, training and teaching opportunities? Finally, did you find most trainees lived in houses or hospital accommodation or was it a fair mix? PM me if you would rather? :smile:

Yes i worked at the Churchill and Horton. Horton is a really small hospital, only 3 major medical wards plus a relatively small MAU. It is busy though. For medicine it had a really nice atmosphere, seniors were helpful. They were not Oxford academics. There used to be a morning meeting where the night team handed over to all medical teams together so you saw everyone each day. Few lunchtime meetings too through the week. Churchill I did specialty medicine. Lots of interesting patients all over the hospital. More typical Oxford with lots if academically driven consultants but generally a nice vibe. There's no a&e or acute general medical or surgical admissions so caseload everywhere is varied but interesting. I did surgery there in f1 for a short stint and nights were horrendous... Spent a lot of time with the itu and medical reg with very sick post op patients. I've heard that job is now better supported with on site middle grade cover. NOC I have no idea about. Caveat to this was that it was all 5 years ago so lots of things may have changed. For example not sure fy1 still do nights, back then we did loads.

Most people started in on site accommodation. The Churchill accommodation is nicest although I remember there was one building there that was grimey and typically had cockroaches etc - dunno if still there or not and can't remember the name. Jr accommodation is decent, not spectacular. Only stayed there 1 week before moving. From memory most people seemed to filter out of accommodation after 1-2 months, maybe about 2/3 of the f1 cohort. Although private accommodation in Oxford is expensive, the hospital accommodation is not exactly cheap and if you can find a group of friends to live with you can potentially find a nice place to live in. Jericho, Summertown and Headington have some nice houses/flats which are affordable although you have to shop around and be quick off the block. Get a bike and you can get around the city easily.

I did a lot of medical jobs in f1/2 and they were all very busy. All hospitals in the trust are busy. However it's great experience and you come out of it more prepared for CT/ST than some places that protect their foundation doctors a lot. It's always variable whether you get on with your colleagues and that makes a big difference in fy1 I think but I would recommend Oxford to anyone for foundation training. I loved it there. For core or specialty training I am not so sure, think it is impossible to generalise and more dependant on the sort of person you are in terms of enjoying working in Oxford.

(edited 8 years ago)

Oxford foundation school

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