Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology (ID/MM)

About

The HEE KSS joint training programme in Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology is a five year dual accreditation programme, leading to accreditation in both specialities.

The Programme is led by Nik Patel, Head of School, and Dr Dan Agranoff, Training Programme Director. To find out more about their roles visit the Meet the Team webpage.

Training in Infection on the HEE KSS scheme encompasses placements in university teaching hospital settings both in Brighton and in London, as well as rotations in Medical Microbiology at other NHS Trusts in the region.

The programme provides rigorous and broad training across the full spectrum of Infectious Diseases including community and hospital acquired infection, imported infection, HIV medicine, infectious hepatitis, bone and joint infections and travel medicine.

During the ID placements, the registrar is responsible for the assessment and management of patients on a dedicated inpatient ID Unit, contributing to an ID consult service and providing telephone advice as well as assessment of patients in both routine and Rapid Access outpatient settings. The Medical Microbiology placements afford extensive opportunities to develop high level expertise in laboratory microbiology and medical virology, clinical infection liaison, infection control and outbreak management.

Where do trainees train?

– Frimley Park Hospital, Frimley – Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust 

– East Surrey Hospital, Redhill – Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

– Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton – Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (tertiary centre)

– Worthing Hospital, Worthing – Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

– St Richards Hospital, Chichester – Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

To find out more about each training location, please visit the Local Education Provider webpage.

– St Georges Hospital, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

– Charing Cross Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

– The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, University College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

– Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Rotation example

The below shows an example of rotations through the various sites, although any given trainee will not necessarily rotate through all these placements:

Year one (combined infection training)

Department of Microbiology, Worthing Hospital – laboratory microbiology, clinical liaison and weekly HIV clinics.

Year two (combined infection training)

Clinical Infectious Diseases, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton – inpatient and outpatient Infectious Diseases, clinical consults, and infectious hepatitis clinics.

Year three (higher infection training)

Microbiology laboratory, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton – laboratory microbiology, clinical virology and clinical liaison.

Year four (higher infection training)

St George’s Hospital, London – inpatient and outpatient Infectious Diseases, clinical consults, and inpatient and outpatient HIV medicine.

Year five (higher infection training)

St Richards Hospital, Chichester – elective secondments, further laboratory microbiology and further HIV clinics.

Structure of the training programme

All trainees appointed to the programme from Aug 2015 will follow the 2014 Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology curricula. Details about the curricula for our ID/MM training programme can be found on the links to the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Pathologists websites listed below:

The first two years of the programme consist of Combined Infection Training (CiT) and will comprise the time equivalents of a minimum of six months in Laboratory Microbiology, six months of clinical liaison, six months ongoing care of infection inpatients and six months of outpatients. These will not be distinct blocks but will to some extent occur in parallel.

The first year will be spent in Brighton or one of the satellite DGHs attached to a Microbiology laboratory, while the second year will usually be in ID in Brighton. After CiT, trainees move on to three years of Higher Infection Training in both ID and Medical Microbiology and will rotate through a London-based ID post (usually St George’s Hospital but possibly Hammersmith, Charing Cross or the HTD), a further Microbiology post on the South Coast or Surrey and a final year incorporating further ID and Microbiology and/or additional elective options.

Academic Training through the NIHR programme

We welcome applications for NIHR funded Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) which are advertised most years in parallel with the centralised HEE KSS recruitment process.

We host two to four ACFs/CLs on our programme at any one time, supported by our professorial academic department of Infectious Diseases which is closely integrated with the medical school and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton.

Our ACF programme provides for 12 months of protected research time during the first three years on the programme and is designed for the pre-doctoral trainee. All ACFs are funded to undertake a part time MRes run by the University of Brighton.

The CLs also provide up to three years of protected research time  and are intended for trainees who already hold a PhD and are preparing for applications for Career Development Fellowships and ultimately Senior Lecturer posts at consultant level but who still have several years of higher Speciality training to go prior to CCT.

Why choose KSS for training?

There are many reasons why trainee should join the KSS programme:

  • One of the virtues of being a relatively small training programme is that we can be highly responsive to individual interests and training needs (we have nine trainees in clinical placements at any one time). It is usually possible to arrange a bespoke training trajectory which not only delivers all the elements of the core and higher infection training curricula, but can also accommodate special interests through elective secondments e.g. to the Oxford Bone Unit, Porton Down fever service, Intensive Care Medicine, to name but a few.
  • A weekly consultant-led teaching programme, which is open to Infection trainees throughout the programme, takes place in Brighton and is supplemented by monthly Brighton-based Research, Audit and Governance meetings as well as local teaching centred on individual training sites.
  • The TPD and educational supervisors maintain close contact both formally and informally with individual trainees, which helps with the fine-tuning of personalised training requirements. The TPD and other trainers make a point of meeting face to face with all trainees at regular interim reviews and at the ARCPs.
  • We actively encourage our trainees to engage with research and to apply for training fellowships via the Wellcome Trust or Research Councils and/or through the NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship or Clinical Lecturer schemes. Many of our trainees undertake a PhD or MD during their training.
  •  We are sympathetic to geographical constraints relating to trainees’ personal circumstances and will arrange placements which as far as possible take into account these factors.
  • The quality of life in Brighton with its vibrant cultural scene, excellent restaurants and coastal ambience is unsurpassed. The other coastal and inland placements combine the advantages of DGH Microbiology training in beautiful parts of the country (where the trainee will have a high level of supervised responsibility in delivering an integrated infection service, commensurate with experience), with on-going participation in training meetings at the Brighton hub. If London continues to beckon, it is less than an hour’s train ride from Brighton!
  • Our training programme gives trainees the best of all worlds – a personalisable training trajectory, strong research links with BSMS.

Teaching and Learning

Full funding is provided by HEE KSS for two trainees each year to attend the following national workshops:

  • Oxford Bone Infection Conference
  • Liverpool Neurological Infections Course
  • Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections (AMRHAI) Foundation Course on Hospital Infection Control

It is expected that each trainee will attend these workshops at least once during their training.

Additionally, trainees are eligible to apply to HEE KSS for generous training bursaries which regularly become available and can be used to support international conference attendance, research projects and other innovative proposals related to training.

What are former trainees doing now?

Over the past four years, trainees completing our programme have been appointed to the following consultant posts:

  • Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, St George’s University Hospital, London
  • Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
  • Consultant in Microbiology, Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust
  • Consultant in Virology, Royal Free Hospital, London
  • Senior Lecturer/Hon Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, BSMS.