Acute Care Common Stem Core training is a 4-year training programme intended to follow foundation training, comprising attachments in Acute Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine. ACCS intends to produce junior doctors who can recognise and manage the sick patient, and who have the complementary training required for specialisation in Emergency Medicine, Acute Internal Medicine and ICM.
Anaesthesia and Intensive Care is an exciting, challenging and rewarding career pathway, with opportunities to work in different sub-specialties with highly skilled teams; and opportunities for continued learning and professional development throughout your career!
The Acute Care Common Stem curriculum in the West Midlands is met using hospitals based across the region. It is one of the most popular curricula applied to in United Kingdom Postgraduate Medicine due to its ability to deliver a broad base of experience prior to progressing to specialty training.
ST1/CT1 Level
The hospitals provide training opportunities at CT1 level in Acute Medicine and Emergency Medicine. The trainee would expect to spend their first year at one of these hospitals with 6 months being spent in each of the 2 specialties.
The posts within these hospitals have been specially selected for ACCS since they provide an ideal case mix to achieve the competencies contained in the ACCS curriculum. The posts have been used now since the inception of ACCS and are known to reliably deliver ACCS training requirements.
ST2/CT2 Level
CT2 ACCS in West Midlands comprises 6 months of Anaesthesia and 6 months of Intensive Care Medicine which would be undertaken at one of the hospitals listed below. Again the posts used in these hospitals are known to deliver a wide variety of experience and give ample opportunities to achieve the curriculum requirements.
CT3/CT4 Level
You will continue your training in your parent specialty for 2 more years.
Anaesthetic stream trainees will aim to pass the primary FRCA exam and complete stage 1 anaesthetic training at the end of 4 years.
Hospitals that provide ACCS training:
- Sandwell Hospital
- City Hospital
- Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
- Princess Royal Telford Hospital
- New Cross, Wolverhampton Hospital
- Royal Stoke University Hospital
- Walsall Manor Hospital
- University Hospital Birmingham- Queen Elizabeth, Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull
- Worcestershire Royal Hospital
- Redditch Hospital
- Russell Hall Hospital
- Hereford Hospital
- University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire
- Warwick Hospital
- George Elliot Hospital
ACCS ARCPs
ACCS checklists for the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) are on the ACCS website ( www.accs.ac.uk) and Royal College of Anaesthetists website (www.rcoa.ac.uk)
Explicit instructions regarding the requirements for a successful ARCP are sent out by the TPD at the start of each academic year.
Educational Programme & Supervision
The educational program followed is that of the post in which the trainee is placed since they are expected to develop the skills relevant to that post. The training record used is that of the parent College of the trainee's selected specialty to provide continuity in future years of training.
Trainees will be allocated an Educational Supervisor for the first 2 years from their parent specialty which will be responsible for the overall supervision and management of a trainee’s trajectory of learning and educational progress during ACCS. They will assist the trainee with appraisal and ARCP requirements.
A named clinical supervisor will be assigned from their current clinical post and oversees their time in that post.
ACCS ARCP Documents
ACCS ARCP 2022-23 Decision Aid.pdf (rcoa.ac.uk)
ACCS End of placement report v1.2.docx (live.com)
ACCS Handbook
ACCS Educational Supervisor Handbook 2021-2022 v1.1.docx (live.com)
ACCS Curriculum and Educational Supervision Handbook 2.docx (sharepoint.com)
ACCS curriculum
2021 Curriculum — ACCS
Contact Details
Training Programme Director: Dr Ratizdo Danha