Versions of Training offered
Note – all these start with 2 years of combined infection training
ID –GIM } 6 posts, plus 3 military
Tropical Medicine- GIM (see below) }
ID-Medical Microbiology: 12-14 posts including 1-2 ACFs
ID-Virology: 2 posts including 1 ACF
West Midlands is no longer appointing to mono-specialty microbiology or virology training programmes. Such training is still available in some regions
Typical rotations are shown below
Tropical Medicine training is not appointed to separately from ID in region. TM training is the same as infectious disease training except for these additional requirements:
2 years of training to be at one of 4 UK approved tropical training centres, of which Birmingham Heartlands is one;
3mn full time DTM&H course must be completed
1yr of prospectively approved clinical training in a resource poor setting
Why Choose West Midlands for Infection Training?
The West Midlands programme, with approximately 24 infection trainees, is big enough to offer a broad, thorough training and friendly competition from a good number of fellow trainees, whilst being small enough to support individuals’ specific training aims.
The ID-Micro/Virology programmes are now well established in region, and indeed the largest group of infection trainees are now the ID-Medical microbiology strain! 3 ID consultants, including the ID training Programme Director, are ID-micro trained and dually accredited. We are one of only 4 regions to be accredited for Tropical Medicine training in the UK, and we benefit from being the main centre for military infectious diseases medicine, including training of military personnel in infection specialties.
The largest ID unit in the West Midlands, and the major ID training centre, is at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital (BHH), which is part of the Heart of England NHS Trust. The department is long established, vibrant, and expanding -reassuringly so in the current economic climate. There are now 7 ID consultants, and typically 4/5 registrars. All subspecialties are managed or co-managed by the ID consultants. This includes a large in- & out- patient TB service, HIV (1000 patients), chronic Hepatitis B&C, bone infection, etc.
There are 3 other training centres for ID in the region: trainees in ID-GIM generally spend their first year at either University Hospital of North Staffordshire, or Royal Worcester Hospital, and University Hospital of Coventry & Warwick is also accredited for training. Further years are largely based in BHH. All three of these Trusts plan to further expand ID consultant numbers in 2016, demonstrating a need for and commitment to the specialty across the region.
Microbiology and virology training takes place across region and trainees benefit from experiencing learning and working in a variety of settings. University Hospital Birmingham has one of the largest ITUs in Europe and is a supra-regional transplant centre. Specialist microbiology experience can also be found at Birmingham Children’s Hospital
Out of Programme experience or research is strongly supported by the infection specialties programme in the West Midlands. See below (“how can my career be further developed”).