West Midlands South Deanery - FY1 2018

Hi
Myself and my boyfriend have got into
West Midlands south deanery for foundation year 1. Just wondering if any medical students/ foundation doctors had experience in any of the following hospitals or advice about where to live/ where the junior docs live in this deanery. Hospitals:

- Royal Worcester
- Alexandra in Redditch
- Coventry and Warwick
- Hereford
- George Eliot in Nuneaton

Thanks

Which hospitals are in WMS these days? They keep changing the FS boundaries. Is it just Hereford, Redditch and Worcester, or is it Coventry / Warwick as well?

I don't know Coventry / Warwick, but I know the other 3.

- Hereford - lovely place to work and really close knit team, but it's very far away and rural. Really not feasible to commute daily from Birmingham, so most people end up living in Hereford. Lovely if you enjoy the country life, not so great if you want regular city fun. But the hospital is a great place to work, albeit a little DGH. Plenty to learn. And lots of team bonding cos generally most people are new to area and the junior doctors tend to hang out a lot together.

- Worcester - I've worked here several times through the years, and have always loved it. It's quite variable each year as to whether people live locally or commute from Birmingham, so quite hard to predict. Depends a lot on whether most people are originally from out of area (tend to move to Worcester) or whether they're Birmingham grads who already have bases in Birmingham (tend to commute). The year I was there, I lived in, as did many of the FY1s, and we had a really good team and good socialising, used to go out with the nurses and pharmacists a lot, generally really good team effort in and out of work. The accommodation has recently been refurbished and is very nice but expensive. Flats with 3 ensuite rooms per flat, no sitting room but communal kitchen with table. Is currently about £550pcm for an ensuite room. Only thing I'd say about Worcester is that ED there is a hard, hard job. ED is hard everywhere but in recent years Worcester has been in the news a fair amount with its ED catastrophes and isn't really fit for purpose, it's too small, ridiculously busy and generally a demoralising place. But everything else apart from ED is great. Worcester is a nice eclectic little town, lots of nice green scenery, lots of good little shops and places to eat, quirky pubs etc.

- Redditch - much quieter hospital. Much of the acute stuff fro Redditch has moved to Worcester - all paeds, neonates and obstetrics, I think all acute surgery except maybe urology, and other things are gradually moving over as well. Redditch has a big staff retention problem. All their ED consultants quit en masse a few years ago. Not sure about accommodation etc. Redditch isn't a great town, probably better (and doable) to live in south Birmingham and commute.

This is the advice I gave someone else further down the forum who also asked about WMS:

I'm also WMS! Where are you guys planning on living?