If you are looking to apply to an ST3-level programme in one of the medical specialties coordinated by the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office (PSRO) national recruitment process, this website contains detailed information to help you. This covers recruitment to UK training programmes in these specialties in England, Scotland and Wales, and also Northern Ireland for clinical genetics, medical oncology and palliative medicine.
Completion of a substantive ST3 programme will lead to a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) or a Combined Programme Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR CP). For more information on certification please see the JRCPTB website.
The recruitment process section of the website is the home to the majority of general information to help you navigate a recruitment round, including: timeline, eligibility criteria, planning your application, applying, interviews and offers. For specialty specific information such as interview dates and post numbers, interview format and data from previous years, please visit the relevant specialty's page.
In addition to the website, we have produced an 'Applicants' Guide' which overviews how the process works and is a good introduction for those new to specialty recruitment. This is available to download from the document library.
It is advisable to view the relevant person specification for the specialty(ies) to which you are intending to apply.
You may also wish to view competition ratios and scoring from previous rounds, which is available under the 'data' tab within the relevant specialty's page.
Stroke medicine
The PSRO also coordinate a national recruitment process for stroke medicine in England and Wales. Please see the stroke medicine section of the website for details about the process.
2021 recruitment
The timeline for 2021 contains the major dates for both rounds in 2021:
- Round 1 - opens for applications at 10am 29 January 2020 and closes at 10am 24 February 2020, for programmes starting from August to December 2020.
- Round 2 - opens for applications at 10am 28 July 2020 and closes at 4pm 13 August 2020, for programmes starting from October 2020 to April 2021.
Participating specialties
As internal medicine training at core level (IMT) has changed to a three year programme, some specialties will have no or limited recruitment in 2021 as posts are being used for the third year. In summary,:
- Group 2 specialties will be recruiting as normal and current IMY2 trainees are welcome to apply, provided they are on track to successfully complete IMY2 by 4 August 2021.
- Group 1 specialties will depend on the specialty:
- Cardiology, genitourinary medicine, neurology and palliative medicine will be recruiting as normal at ST3-level. Recruitment is not open to current IMY2 trainees applying on the basis of completing the second year of IMT by August 2022; they will be welcome to apply for posts starting in 2022 at ST4-level.
- Acute internal medicine, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, renal medicine, respiratory medicine and rheumatology will not see recruitment for any posts in England starting in 2021. Scotland and Wales are recruiting in round 1 as follows:
- Scotland : acute internal medicine, geriatric medicine, renal medicine, rheumatology.
- Wales : acute internal medicine, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, renal medicine, respiratory medicine, rheumatology
Recruitment will resume in 2022 to group 1 specialties at ST4-level. For more information about the physician specialty training structure and which specialties are in each group, please visit the JRCPTB website: