How do I go about getting my first NHS hospital job?

Hi,

I'm returning to medicine after 13 years of public health and will be getting my GMC registration soon. Living in Cambridge and want to work in a nearby hospital (e.g. Addrenbrookes) to build up a portfolio to try for GP training post next year.

I did an year of internship and have a couple of years of hospital/patient exposure Long ago

Do I contact a recruitment agency? If so, what's a good one for Cambridge, does anyone know?

I'm currently on a very flexible shadowing contract at my local hospital - (but they seem to only advertise for higher level posts!) and I work full time in my current career. But intend to resign etc on getting my registration.

But any advice overall about the whole procedure and interviews questions etc, would be fantastic for me!

So out of touch and what an U-Turn :-D!

Many thanks in advance! Really need some good support and advice

Mita
x

Interesting! Can I ask you what made you want to go back to medicine?
I'm still a medical student but considering a career in public health.

Did you just get bored with it?

I was so passionate bout public health in 3rd year that I decided to move. But I think I had the types of jobs in WHO UNICEF saving the world type of work in mind. UK mainstream public health is not that. Full of politics and still like research where you have to make cases for projects and it's complex. But I think I was stuck in public health genomics rather than mainstream public health. So can't generalise.

But one key factor was shrinking of the public health funding starting from the recent Nhs reforms .,.
Many consultants retrained as GP due to job cuts. I find that jobs are more unsecured in PH...

Plus yes I definitely think it's now boring sitting at the computer analysing data writing reports- compared to chattingvto patients- 'miss that... I love counselling and would advise at any opportunity... so now thinking of combining GP job with public health to serve communities welll...

Yes, I knew about the public health funding cuts but didn't think it was so bad. And I guess most people think of WHO/UNICEF or humanitarian work when it comes to Public Health, maybe because Global Health is such a hot topic right now.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your experience and good luck with your career as a GP!

You will need to be able to demonstrate your foundation competencies if you apply for GP (or any other) training job, having been away from clinical medicine for so long. A LAT FY2 would probably be easier to achieve this in than a trust grade job.