Medical and Dental

At West Herts, we are committed to the development of our workforce and are proud of the opportunities we are able to offer.

All Locally Employed Doctors’ (LEDs), Speciality and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors and Consultants are entitled to 30 study days over three financial years and a £1000 study budget per financial year.

Foundation Programme

Foundation Training at West Herts covers a two-year curriculum, with experience in a broad range of clinical settings. Opportunities include training oncology, general, vascular, and urological surgery, GP, Psychiatry, Public Health, Paediatrics, O&G, and Ophthalmology, in addition to A&E, acute medicine, geriatric medicine and wide range of medical specialties.

We have a state-of-the-art simulation training suite to support and complement clinical training on the wards.

Core training for the programme is centred around two hours of classroom teaching per week, in addition to opportunities for attending Hub half-day training events within the local network, which will focus on speciality experience. Departmental teaching is also offered whilst in your respective placements. The core programme seeks to help you widen your knowledge base, and includes some specialty specific subjects, and training in generic professional skills. The training in the second Foundation year also offers opportunities for you to prepare for your wider professional responsibilities as you prepare to enter specialty or general practice training and includes opportunities to work in community placements.

You will of course have Clinical and Educational supervisors. We aim to provide Educational Supervisors who oversee the whole of the first or second year. We have a strong commitment to the pastoral support of doctors in training, and our Foundation Training programme directors see it as an important part of their role to be available to discuss any areas of concern. We have an active Junior Doctors’ Forum, which provides access to senior administrative staff, as well as the Medical Education team and Guardian of Safe Working.

West Herts is a busy DGH, and as such provides a thorough grounding in clinical experience that will equip you very well for whatever your future career choice becomes. Should you join our Foundation programme, we believe that you will find it to be a valuable start to your medical career.

GP Specialist training Programme GPSTP

Our training practices are in the Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead areas. The hospital rotation offers an excellent range of posts which are mostly based at Watford General Hospital. The area has good schools, easy access by road and rail from North London and good employment opportunities.

• We have four experienced and enthusiastic Programme Directors
• Experienced Trainers with a wide range of specialist interests
• Excellent Training Practices – great mixture of sizes spread across Watford, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans.
• Close proximity to London – good rail and road links and excellent schools.
• Expertise in teaching the CSA with a very high first-time pass rate.
• A very good range of hospital posts - all rotations include Paediatrics, Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynaecology