Clinical pharmacology & therapeutics (CPT) is a dynamic and varied specialty; the core role of a clinical pharmacologist is to improve the care of patients through safe, effective and efficient use of medicines. Training is combined with general internal medicine (GIM) leading to a dual accreditation in CPT & GIM.

CPT trainees and consultants have diverse and exciting roles combining clinical practice with development and implementation of new therapies, education and training of current and future prescribers, and promotion of evidence-based therapeutics through local and national policy.

Specific areas of training include:

  • Specialist management of patients with complex prescribing needs, including multimorbidity and polypharmacy
  • Implementation of personalised medicine including pharmacogenomics to guide therapeutic decisions
  • Investigation and management of adverse drug reactions, overdose and poisoning
  • Ability to develop a therapeutic area of specialism e.g. hypertension, oncology, stroke, obstetric medicine
  • Advising on the cost effective, safe and rational use of medicines on a population level
  • Delivering prescribing education to promote safe and effective use of medicines across the NHS
  • Providing expertise in the design and delivery of clinical trial and experimental medicine, and other research relating to pharmacology & therapeutics

CPT - trainee characteristics

CPT has a broad remit and will appeal to trainees with a wide range of interests and skills. It will particularly suit trainees who are:

  • self-directed
  • innovative
  • enjoy variety in training

Training in clinical pharmacology also provides time for critical appraisal, analysis and academic development, with a greater degree of flexibility than other specialties.


Summary of the specialty

It is an excellent time to consider CPT as a career. Clinical pharmacologists make a vital contribution to the health of patients, providing unparalleled specialist and generalist expertise focusing on the safe, effective, and efficient use of medicines. It is a diverse and wide-ranging discipline that plays an essential role across multiple areas of the NHS, contributing to its organisational objectives and, most importantly, improving patient outcomes and experiences.

Clinical pharmacologists may also make a valuable contribution to academia, medicines regulation and drug policy and the pharmaceutical industry.

Some brief information on these areas is given below (click on the relevant heading): 



Further information

General / application queries

For general queries relating to areas such as eligibility criteria, making an application or the Oriel system, please contact the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office.

Queries regarding the progress of a submitted application should be directed to the lead recruiter for this specialty. The lead recruiter for clinical pharmacology and therapeutics is East of England.

NHS England East of England
Postal address

2-4 Victoria House
Capital Park
Fulbourn
Cambridge
CB21 5XB

email address

[email protected]

 

Group 1 specialty

This is a Group 1 specialty and requires completion of the internal medicine training (IMT) stage 1 programme or equivalent; all programmes in the specialty will dual specialise with general internal medicine.

Therefore, this specialty uses the standard HST eligibility criteria for Group 1 specialties and does not accept candidates from any alternative training routes. Please visit the am I eligible? section of this website for further information.

Commitment to specialty

The specialty will not be assessing your commitment to specialty as part of the shortlisting process and will score your application purely via the self-assessment scoring framework. Commitment to specialty will be assessed as part of the interview.

As part of the process of applying to HST, you may wish to gain an idea of how recruitment progressed in previous years for the various specialties participating in the nationally-coordinated recruitment.

To this end, we have published data dating back to 2013 (where this is available), based around four main areas:

  • Competition ratios - application numbers submitted to each specialty, along with the number of NTN and LAT posts available in each. It is worth noting that posts are subject to change throughout the round (increasing on average between 20-40%), and post numbers for this data are taken at the end of the round.

  • Shortlist scores - the scores awarded to all submitted applications, including average scores and distribution nationally.

  • Total scores - the total score awarded to all candidates who completed the full recruitment process for a specialty (application and interview), including some analysis of scores.

  • Post fill rates - the number of posts filled by region. 

We have published information for all specialties participating in our process that year; consequently not all specialties will have data in all cases.

Indicative post numbers

Indicative vacancy numbers are available in the table below, broken down by region and divided between substantive national training number (NTN) and locum appointment for training (LAT) posts. In many cases these will be presented as a range (e.g. 1-4) as it is not always possible for regions to know at this stage how many vacancies there will be.

It is the intention that indicative post numbers for all regions will be published prior to the application opening date, although this cannot be guaranteed. Please note that this table is not likely to be updated subsequent to indicative numbers and actual numbers will be confirmed when programme preferences are opened later in the round.

Numbers subject to change

Please be aware that it is not uncommon for vacancy numbers to change as the round progresses.

More commonly, post vacancy numbers can increase as the round goes on (and confirmation of posts becomes available); but it is also possible that numbers can reduce as well. In the past, post numbers have risen an average of 20-40% from the start to the finish of the round but this can vary greatly for individual specialty/region combinations.

It is possible that regions which do not have a post at the start of the round may declare one after applications have closed. Whilst we try and minimise instances of this, it is not always possible to predict vacancies so even if there appears not to be a vacancy in your preferred specialty/region combination, you may wish to consider applying in case one becomes available during the round; you can check with the region concerned if you wish to check on the likelihood of a post arising.

Generally, once a region enter a post into a round they would always have at least one post available and would only withdraw it in exceptional circumstances.

Round 1 Interview dates & posts

Region
NTN posts
LAT posts*
Evidence upload date(s) Interview date(s)
East Midlands
0 N/A
 
08/01/24 - 22/01/24

27/03/24

East of England
2 - 3 N/A
London

0 - 2

N/A
Kent, Surrey and Sussex

0

N/A
North East
0 - 1 N/A
North West 

North West

0 - 1

N/A

Mersey

0 - 1

N/A
South West
Peninsula
TBC
N/A
Severn
TBC
N/A
Thames Valley
0 N/A
Wessex
N/A N/A
West Midlands
0 - 1 N/A
Yorkshire & Humber
TBC N/A
Scotland**
0 - 1
TBC
Wales
0 - 1
TBC

*English LATs

Please note, English regions do not recruit to LAT posts.

**Scotland post numbers

If you are interested in working in Scotland, a breakdown of post numbers by the four Scottish regions is available on the Scottish Medical Training website. This has details of all specialty training post numbers in Scotland, including specialties which are not part of the nationally-coordinated process.

The SMT website will always be the more accurate one where they differ.

Interview content

The interview will be split across two stations with a separate pair of interviewers scoring you on the areas in their station. There will be four questions which are 10 minutes each in length. You will be marked on these questions and your communication skills in both stations, giving six scored areas in total. The headings below show the question areas and in which station they will be covered, along with information about what will be assessed.

Each station will last 20 minutes, so, including the time between stations, the interview will be approximately 50 minutes.

Please note that this is subject to change and will be confirmed by the date of interview.

Scoring framework

The score of 1-5 an interviewer will award you for each assessment area is judged in relation to how well you perform against an expected level. Below is the framework used to award scores at interview, as well as interpretation of what these scores represent:

  

  

  

Mark

  

  

  
  

  

  

 Rating

  

  

  
  

  

  

Assessment

  

  

  

1

poor

not considered appointable

2

area for concern

performed below the level expected from a core level trainee applying to the specialty;
possibly unappointable, subject to discussion and performance in other areas

3

satisfactory

performed at the level expected of a core level trainee applying to the specialty;
the candidate is suitable for a higher specialty training post

4

good

above average ability;
the candidate is suitable for a higher specialty training post

5

excellent

highly performing trainee;
the candidate is suitable for a higher specialty training post

As shown in the table, for each of the question areas at interview, 3/5 is considered a satisfactory score; and reflects the level of performance that would be expected of a trainee ready to progress to a specialty training programme.

Should your performance go above and beyond this expected level, interviewers can award marks of 4/5 or 5/5 as appropriate.

Conversely, should your interview performance not reach the expected level, then interviewers can award marks of 1/5 or 2/5, as reflects their level of concern over your performance.


Appointability

Raw interview score (RIS)

The RIS is the sum of all twelve scores awarded to you during your interview, but before any weighting is applied.

As each individual score will be between 1 and 5, your RIS will be between 12 and 60.

Appointability requirements

To be classed as 'appointable', you must meet all three criteria below:

  • none of your twelve interview scores can be 1/5
  • no more than two of your twelve interview scores can be 2/5
  • your RIS must be 36 or above.

If you meet all three requirements, your application will be assessed as appointable, and can progress to be considered for post offers.

However, if you fail to meet any of these requirements, your application must then be assessed as not appointable, and it will progress no further in that round.


Total score

After interview, a weighting is applied to the scores in each area, as well as your application score.

These scores are then combined to give your total score which determines your ranking, which will in turn be used to inform how offers are made. The weighting of different sections, as well as the method by which your total score is established, is detailed in the table accessible through the link below:

    

 

  

    

 Interviewer 1

  

    

 Interviewer 2

  

    

Weighting

  

    

Max score

  

Question 1

Clinical scenario

/ 5

/ 5

1.6

16

Question 2

Medical registrar suitability

/ 5 /5 1.2 12

Question 3

Communication mark

/ 5

/ 5

1.2

12

Question 4

Suitability and commitment

/ 5

/ 5

1.6

16

Question 5

Presentation/Research/Academic

/ 5 / 5 1.6 16

Question 6

Communication mark

/ 5 / 5 0.8 8

Raw interview score

/ 50

Interview score (w weighting)

/ 80

 Application score

/ 50

0.4

/ 20

 Total score

/ 100