Question about training to be a Public Health Consultant.

Hi there,

So I always had a keen interest in Public Health and Public Policy and wanted to be a Public Health Consultant and also study Medicine.

I have a rather strange question but was wondering if anyone can offer some insight: If someone were to qualify as a Public Health Consultant but not via the medical doctor route, if they then decided upon reaching consultant level they wanted to go back and do Medicine and say complete a four-year degree and the foundation year, would they be able to "return" to a position of being a Public Health Consultant or would they have to do the training all over again?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

I mean if you're considering both routes anyway it might be simplest just to go and do the medical degree first in any event. It's almost certainly less competitive to get into a medical degree than into public health specialty training from what I understand!

It is an unusual situation, I suppose in principle you'd still meet all the requirements for consultant posts after completing the foundation programme and so could just reapply to consultant posts then perhaps? Also many specialty training programmes have rules about not allowing people with more than X amount of experience in the area to apply anyway I think?