Since 2005, new graduates from medical school entered into the Foundation programme under reforms by Modernising Medical Careers. Under MMC a new two-year foundation programme for all medical graduates was established to replace the pre-registration house officer (PRHO) year and first year of senior house officer (SHO) training. With the first two years of training becoming Foundation House Officer Year 1 (FHO1) and Foundation House Officer Year 2 (FHO2).

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The Foundation programme is designed to link finishing medical school to beginning Specialist training or General Practice training with participants undertaking a series of placements within various specialties and healthcare settings.

At the minute you have 6 x four month placements covering 2 years, so 3 in the FHO1 and 3 in FHO2 in which time you must cover a minimum of 4 months in surgery and soon to be a minimum 4 months in General Practice.

When an individual successfully completes the foundation programme, they will move into a specialty training programme which, upon successful completion, will lead to the award of a certificate of completion of training (CCT) either for specialist or general practice training, at which point you may apply for consultancy posts.

Specialist Training (ST)

For entry into specialist training in 2007 doctors applied through the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), a central application process. Unfortunately, the MTAS was not without its problems, and led to an independent inquiry being launched into MMC, led by Professor Sir John Tooke. The inquiry’s final report, Aspiring to Excellence, published in January 2008, will inform the medical training system for entry in August 2009. The report is available here.