Northern Ireland FY1 2021

Hello,
I study at QUB but I'm not staying there for FY. The Royal is the big hospital in Belfast (tertiary centre) - it's very busy so you might not get as much supervision but there's still lots of learning opportunities. The Mater/Belfast City are the second largest in Belfast - the Mater is a lovely hospital and from my friends in the year above, supervision is great and the staff are lovely. Currently, it's one of the big COVID hospitals but hopefully come August, things will improve and there will be other things going on too.

The hospitals outside of Belfast are better than those in Belfast imo! There's Craigavon which about a 30-40 minute drive from Belfast in the morning so you could commute and their canteen is 10/10. Derry is about 2 hours away from Belfast - imo it is the friendliest hospital in NI and the town is lovely. Hope that helps!

For people allocated to Northern Ireland FY1 starting in August 2021 Anyone know much about hospitals in Northern Ireland, especially in Belfast?

Hello,

I study at QUB but I'm not staying there for FY. The Royal is the big hospital in Belfast (tertiary centre) - it's very busy so you might not get as much supervision but there's still lots of learning opportunities. The Mater/Belfast City are the second largest in Belfast - the Mater is a lovely hospital and from my friends in the year above, supervision is great and the staff are lovely. Currently, it's one of the big COVID hospitals but hopefully come August, things will improve and there will be other things going on too.

The hospitals outside of Belfast are better than those in Belfast imo! There's Craigavon which about a 30-40 minute drive from Belfast in the morning so you could commute and their canteen is 10/10. Derry is about 2 hours away from Belfast - imo it is the friendliest hospital in NI and the town is lovely. Hope that helps!

If you are coming in from outside Northern Ireland, I would personally suggest putting rotations with F1 in Altnagelvin at the top of your preference list. It is the most sociable hospital in NI, and you will probably find it easier to make friends there. (If you already know people in Northern Ireland, then that won't matter so much.)

I’d recommend doing F1 outside of Belfast, you tend to be quite “protected” in the Belfast trust during F1 which sometimes makes the jump to F2 harder. This especially as if you do F1 in. Belfast you do f2 in outside trusts which are generally “less protected”.

Western trust F1 jobs are usually very good, and most students live in hospital accommodation so it’s good fun and social life is great!

I did F1 in western trust and now F2 in Belfast trust. Some of the F1s I currently work with are hugely protected and not doing as much “independent” work and I feel they may struggle at the start of F2 tbh.

Yeah I was thinking about putting down western trust for my F1 rotations. What hospitals in the western trust would you recommend? And are there any hospitals I should maybe avoid putting down? Thanks so much for your help!

I think the only Western Trust hospitals with F1 rotations would be Altnagelvin and South West Acute Hospital (SWAH)? Altnagelvin is in Derry and SWAH is in Enniskillen.

Altnagelvin is a bigger hospital. So there would be more doctors there, more wards etc. So it depends what exactly you want. I'd probably pick Altnagelvin over SWAH. Both hospitals are usually pretty sociable, but perhaps Altnagelvin moreso. The accommodation is nicer in SWAH. Some rotations probably involve placements in both (I mean you might have 2 4-month blocks in Altnagelvin, and 1 in SWAH, for example).

One last thing - NI is a really friendly place and you will love it!

I think the only thing to be aware of is that if you didn't go to QUB (particuarly if you're not Northern Irish), it can be difficult to make friends because everyone already knows each other quite well - in that way going to a hospital outside of Belfast, it may be easier to meet people. I've spoken to English/Scottish graduates who have come to NI for FY1/2 and they have commented that you need to try really hard to make friends - so just make sure you put the effort in but you will still have a great time!

Thanks a mil for the help. I was wondering if you would know anything about hospitals like antrim and causeway? I haven't heard much about it and not sure if I should put it higher on my list compared to SWAH, craigavon etc for F1.

I'm not the person you quoted there, but in my personal opinion, I'd probably put Antrim/Causeway above Craigavon, but below SWAH. But this depends on what is important to you. And it will also depend what F2 jobs they are associated with.

I have seen a fair few people come into Northern Ireland from outside it for F1/F2, and a pretty common experience is that they find it difficult to make friends. Not true in all cases, but it's a reasonably common theme. So my advice here is bearing that in mind.

So from those hospitals in that post I've quoted, I'd say SWAH would be the most sociable (probably by a reasonably significant margin), as everyone stays up there in accommodation. Followed by Causeway, since it's far-ish from Belfast, so a lot of people use accommodation there too. Antrim/Craigavon aren't going to be very sociable at all. Antrim will often be paired with Causeway in F1, in that you might have 2 placements in 1 of them, and 1 in the other.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

This is super helpful, thanks so much! I'm just a little concerned about putting down causeway/antrim because as you said all the rotations seem to be a mix of causeway and antrim rather than full 3 rotations in one place. I would just be a bit worried about accommodation/commute and all. But you said accommodation is provided for causeway right? Also, would you say rotations at Ulster hospital is less sociable since it's close to Belfast? My current top 3 preferences would be altnagelvin, ulster, SWAH

I’d put Swah above Ulster, purely because people live in Swah whereas everyone will commute from Belfast to ulster etc, so there is less craic after work.

I’d still find somewhere to rent in Belfast so you have a place to go on leave/weekends and not have to stay in Halls, plus accommodation is still free in western trust regardless.

Also means you’ve a base already for f2 which will be in Belfast!m

Wait accommodation is free in the western trusts for F1/F2?