Welsh School Of Anaesthesia

If you are thinking of OOP then you should first seek the advice of a consultant trainer. This could be your local educational supervisor or college tutor. If you plan on gaining experience in a specialist field when away, e.g. paediatric anaesthesia, then it is very important to speak to a consultant within the Welsh School who specialises in that area. They can provide some career counselling, and may be able to suggest an appropriate overseas or UK placement. In general, the Welsh School of Anaesthesia are supportive of trainees planning OOP.

You must have passed the final FRCA to be eligible for OOP. Ideally we expect trainees to have completed Stage 2 training and plan for OOP during Stage 3. For logistical reasons, OOP taken for a six or twelve month period from the beginning of August or February is much easier to accommodate and more likely to be approved.

Consultant trainers, trainee colleagues, the RCoA and AAGBI are valuable resources when seeking a suitable post. The Welsh School of Anaesthesia has contact with a variety of trainees who have undertaken OOP placements which may be a useful starting point. Please contact the HoSS or TPD if you wish to explore other potential links and experience.

The RCoA 2021 curriculum is very prescriptive, changes in the structure of training mean the time spent in Stage 2 is very busy and there is a lot to achieve including the exam and all the sub-specialty blocks. Many trainees find achieving all the Stage 2 key capabilities demanding which is why going OOP is much more suited to latter years (ST6-7) of training. During Stage 3, one year will be spent gaining all the general competencies of the curriculum and up to one year can be spent undertaking the Special Interest Areas (SIAs). It is perhaps the SIAs that lend themselves best to taking OOP time coupled with some general work. It will be important to consider what your interests are and how it would work when mapping the Stage 3 time if you are interested in applying for an OOP.

Meticulous planning when organising the sequence of training modules in the hospitals on your rotation is vital if CCT is not to be delayed.

The first thing you should do is contact the programme director by e-mail and state your intentions. They can then guide you through each step of the process. Once you've identified an appropriate post and have obtained a job description, you must fill in a RCoA OOP form on this RCoA OOP link and submit it to the Programme Director. The guidance on the form is useful and self explanatory. If the Programme Director and Regional Advisor are happy, the form will be sent to the RCoA for consideration. If the information satisfies the RCoA that the post is suitable for training toward CCT, they will issue a letter accordingly. You must then ask HEIW to request prospective GMC approval using the HEIW form using this HEIW Link. HEIW also have some guidance on applying for OOP. All requests are presented at the Specialty Training Committee (STC) by the TPD and approval obtained (or not).