About
Thank you for taking the time to view the training opportunities that HEE KSS has for our joint higher specialist training programmes in General Internal Medicine (GIM) and Geriatric Medicine.
The KSS Geriatric Medicine Training Programme is led by Nik Patel, Head of School, and the Training Programme Directors (TPDs), Dr Iain Wilkinson, Kath Pasco and Paul Reynold. To find out more about their roles visit the Meet the Team webpage.
We are able to offer exciting five-year training programmes offering dual-accreditation in both Geriatric Medicine and General Internal Medicine. The programmes enable trainees to gain the experience of specialist medical care they will need to become consultant physicians, dealing with older persons in all settings including at home or in care homes; in outpatient clinics, day hospital or day care; in accident and emergency and medical assessment units; in acute wards and specialist areas of acute care (such as coronary care, high dependency care, intensive care, acute stroke care etc.); and in rehabilitation wards or intermediate or long term care.
The KSS programmes in General Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine started in 2010, and have negotiated access to a number of places in South London teaching hospitals to provide extra capacity for academic opportunities in Geriatric Medicine. These posts are available at St George’s Hospital, St Thomas’ Hospital and Kings College Hospital. These are in addition to the research portfolios already available in Brighton. Access to these placements will be decided by the training programme directors and will take into consideration the curricular and training needs of all trainees on the programme.
Geriatric Medicine is one of the largest specialties in the UK. It offers a stimulating intellectual challenge: illness may present in unusual ways in older people, they frequently have multiple pathologies that interact, and they are particularly prone to adverse drug reactions. It allows trainees to maintain a generalist approach while also developing a subspecialty interest. Throughout trainees’ five years of higher specialist training they will be involved in GIM and Geriatric Medicine, as with an ageing population Geriatrics forms the majority of the acute medical take.
Geriatrics also offers the chance to work both in community and hospital settings, and by combining experience in KSS trusts along with teaching hospital posts you can gain experience and skills in the sub-specialist areas of Geriatric Medicine, such as:
- Acute Geriatrics on the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) and Frailty Units
- Stroke Medicine (both basic and higher training)
- Ortho-geriatrics and Bone Health
- Old Age Psychiatry and Dementia management
- Incontinence Management
- Joint Management of the older Surgical Patient
- Community Geriatrics and Care Home Assessments
- Movement Disorders
- Cardio-vascular Disease in the Older Patient
- Renal disease in the Older Patient. There is the opportunity to apply for an additional Out of Programme stroke fellowship year after ST4 by competitive interview; there are currently three stroke fellowship posts within KSS.
Please note it is only possible to enrol into the five year joint accreditation schemes.
For further information, please review the Geriatric Programme curriculum.
Where do trainees train?
To try to make our posts more family friendly, KSS posts are organised into two geographical sub-rotations East and West, with shared opportunities to access tertiary centre placements.
East
The East programme is a five year programme, with one year in a London Teaching Hospital (ST5 and above at Kings or St Thomas’ Hospital) and the others at the following hospitals:
Kent
William Harvey Hospital, Ashford – East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust
Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mother Hospital, Margate – East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust
Maidstone Hospital, Maidstone – Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury – East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust
Medway Maritime Hospital, Medway – Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford – Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust
Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Pembury – Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Sussex
Conquest Hospital, St. Leonards-on-Sea – East Sussex Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
West
The West programme is a five year programme with one year in a London Teaching Hospital (ST5 and above at Kings or St Thomas’ Hospital) and one year in Brighton with the other years at the following hospitals:
Kent
Tunbridge Wells Hospital, Pembury – Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Surrey
Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey – Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Frimley Park Hospital, Frimley – Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford – Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust
East Surrey Hospital, Redhill – Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
Sussex
Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton – Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Worthing Hospital, Worthing – Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester – Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
National Training Numbers (NTNs) will be advertised as either East or West rotation, with exact hospital placements and overall rotation through the programme being confirmed with the trainee by the training programme directors.
To find out more about each training location, please visit the Local Education Provider webpage.
HEE KSS Geriatric Training – Trainee Perspective:
“This is a fantastic new rotation based within the HEE KSS region that is small and feels personal. There are lots of opportunities balanced with a quality of life outside work. As trainees we are listened to by the deanery and training program directors and it means that we are part of the development of the rotation; this means anything is possible. This rotation is about the trainees!”
Teaching and Learning
Structured training
We currently run two parallel regional HEE KSS Higher Specialist Training Programmes for Geriatric Medicine, with training days monthly. These training programmes cover the curriculum over a rolling programme, which repeats during the five years. The training programme is designed to cover all aspects of the curriculum and to ensure that trainees acquire the specialist knowledge needed to pass the SCE, as well as gaining insight into research opportunities.
There are separate training programmes for the East and West, but trainees can access any training days they want and a number of these are now run virtually. There are also separate regional training days for General Internal Medicine.
Research
Research is at last generating an ever-expanding evidence base for the management of many conditions in old age and the National Service Framework for Older People has laid out some challenging targets for health care provision.