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Anaesthetic Higher Specialty Training Recruitment in the United Kingdom During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Survey

The most recent ST3 Anaesthetic recruitment for posts commencing in August 2021 saw larger numbers of applicants (n = 1,056) compared to previous years, with approximately 700 applicants failing to secure an ST3 post. We surveyed 536 anaesthetic junior doctors who applied for ST3 posts during this application round with the aim of investigating their experience of the recruitment process this year (response rate 536/1,056 = 51%). Approximately 61% were not offered ST3 posts (n = 326), a similar proportion to that previously reported. We asked all respondents what their potential career plans were for the next 12 to 24 months. The majority expressed intentions to take up either CT3 top-up posts or non-training fellow posts from August 2021 (79%). Other options considered by respondents included: pursuing work abroad (17%), embarking on a career break (16%), taking up an ST3 post in intensive care medicine instead of anaesthetics (15%) and permanently leaving the medical profession (9%). A number of respondents expressed a desire to pursue training in a different medical specialty (9%). Some respondents expressed an intention to pursue further education or research (10%). A large proportion of respondents (42%) expressed a lack of confidence in being able to achieve the necessary training requirements to later apply for ST4 in August 2023. The majority of respondents reported not feeling confident in achieving GMC Specialty Registration in Anaesthesia in the future without a training number (75%), and that their wider life plans have been disrupted due to the impending time out of training (78%). We received a total of 384 free-text responses to a question asking about general concerns regarding the ST3 applications process. Sentiment analysis of these free-text responses indicated that respondents felt generally negatively about the ST3 recruitment process. Some themes that were elicited from the responses included: respondents feeling the recruitment process lacked fairness, respondents suffering burnout and negative impacts on their wellbeing, difficulties in making plans for their personal lives, and feeling undervalued and abandoned despite having made personal sacrifices to support the health service during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results suggest that junior anaesthetic doctors in the UK currently have a negative perception towards postgraduate training structures, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to the postgraduate training curriculum and difficulties in securing higher training posts.