Registration

All ACCS trainees need to register with the appropriate speciality.
When you are offered a post you should be given a national training number from the deanery. This should enable you to register with your parent college (i.e. which speciality you enter post-ACCS) so your training is recognised.
If you have not yet received your NTN, then Diane Lloyd (Diane.Lloyd@southwest.nhs.uk) is the lady in charge of the ACCS NTNs.

The registration form for Anaesthetics is available at www.rcoa.ac.uk
This needs to be sent to Su Underwood, Consultant Anaesthetist at the BRI (Level 7, Anaesthetics Department).
The RCoA has said that registration is FREE for ST1s, and a fee will be paid from ST2 onwards.

The registration form for Emergency Medicine is available atwww.emergencymed.org.uk.

Acute Medicine trainees need to register with the Joint Royal College of Physicians Training www.jrcptb.org.uk
This will enable them to access the NHS e-portfolio for all CMT and ACCS-AM trainees.

Website addresses for the colleges

Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) - www.rcoa.ac.uk
Emergency Medicine College - www.emergencymed.org
Intercollegiate Board for Training in Intensive Care Medicine - www.rcoa.ac.uk
Joint Royal College of Physicians Training - www.jrcptb.org.uk


Assessments

The ACCS Manual is available on the PMETB website at www.pmetb.org.uk
Every ACCS trainee MUST maintain an ACCS logbook in the form shown in Appendix H (pages 287-292).
The Central National Board for ACCS is represented by all 4 specialities. As it is a new speciality, it also means it is a work in progress!
There are three parts to completing ACCS satisfactorily (plus appendix H, as above), including RITAs, paper assessments and exams.

- (a) RITA assessments
Each trainee should have an end-of year RITA assessment which is usually local at the end of year 1 and regional at the end of year 2. The assessment will involve going through the paperwork and ensuring that the trainee is of a satisfactory standard to progress to the next year.

- (b) Paper assessments (i.e. mini-Cexs, DOPS)
All paperwork should be completed whilst doing each individual speciality regardless of your parent speciality (i.e. Emergency Medicine paperwork whilst doing EM, Anaesthetics paperwork whilst doing anaesthetics, etc). This paperwork is available on the individual websites. Acute Medicine Trainees have an NHS e-portfolio at the JRCPTB website. However, anaesthetists can download paper copies from the website. For Emergency Medicine and Anaesthetics/ICM, an e-portfolio is apparently coming into existence. However, this won't be before the end of 2007 (at the earliest).

The paperwork each speciality requires is:

Emergency Medicine (in 6 months)
- 2 x Mini-Cex
- 2 x DOPS
- 2 x CbDs
- 1x Multi-Source Feedback (MSF) in 1 year
This is available to download and print-off at www.emergencymed.org.uk.
The EM College has given a list of suitable topics for the above assessments. This can be found on www.emergencymed.org.uk.


Anaesthetics (in 6 months)
- Sign off the NOVICE anaesthetics - the first 3 months of anaesthetics training (pages 121-133 of the ACCS Manual - available at the PMETB website)
- 6 x DOPS
- 4 x Anaes-CEX
- 2 x CbDs
- 1 x MSF (in StR year 1 and year 6)
- Logbook
- Training portfolio
The assessment forms are available to download and print-off at www.rcoa.ac.uk.
The RCoA has given a list of suitable topics for the above assessments. It can be found on www.rcoa.ac.uk.


Intensive Care Medicine (in 3-6 months)
- Requires you to Complete the Preliminary ICM Training paperwork (available on the ACCS Manual, pages 259-269).

Acute Medicine (in 1 year)
- 4 x Mini-CEXs
- 4 x CbDs
- DOPS until "independence demonstrated"
- 3 x Acute Care Assessment Tools (ACAT). These can be found on www.jrcptb.org.uk.
- 1 x MSF per year.
For a 6-month placement you halve this.
These forms are available at www.jrcpt.org.uk.

- (c) Exams
Exams that trainees are expected to pass to exit ACCS are:
For Acute Medicine - Part 1 MRCP
For Anaesthetics/ICM - FRCA Primary MCQ Assessment of knowledge
For Emergency Medicine - Part 1 MCQs

Intensive Care accreditation/diploma
www.rcoa.ac.uk.
All ACCS trainees should complete the Preliminary ICM paperwork during their 3-6 months of ICM. If you wish to have your training recognised you should complete the Intensive Care Portfolio in addition to any e-portfolio work.

For Non-ICM/anaesthetics trainees who wish to acquire competencies in ICM that equip them in the care of critically ill patients without necessarily becoming specialist intensivists, they will need to do a further 6 months of ICM during ST3-7 and complete the "Core"/Intermediate (Step 1) training programme/paperwork. They will also need to register with the ICTICM for their training to be registered.

You can also undertake a DIPLOMA in ICM which is an optional exam once a year that requires a 4,000-6,000 word dissertation, vivas and data interpretation. For this you need MRCP/FRCA/MRCS, registration with the IBTICM and satisfactory completion of the Core/intermediate training in ICM.

ICM trainees will then go on to complete a further 12 months of ICM and the "Enhanced"/Advanced (Step 2) paperwork to become specialist intensivists.

Swapping placements
Placement swaps will be possible but ALL swaps must go through Anne Whaley (anne.whaley@ubht.nhs.uk). This includes swaps between rotations and swaps between hospitals.

ACCS Anaesthesia
To ensure all ACCS anaesthesia trainees achieve the required amount of anaesthesia training (21 months) prior to entering ST3 Anaesthetics, on completion of their ACCS training, trainees will then join the anaesthesia CCT programme at an appropriate point of ST year 2 (of anaesthesia). The content and duration of the balance of an individuals CCT programme will be dependent on the competencies already achieved during ACCS training.
For ACCS Anaesthetics ST1 trainees, this will be a further 12 months.
For ACCS Anaesthetics ST2 trainees, this may be less than 12 months (depending on the amount of anaesthetics training they already have recognised by the RCoA).

Selection 2008
Main selection in January 2008 will be at ST1 level. FTSTA1 trainees should be able to re-apply for ST1 run-through posts (as long as their experience in that speciality does not EXCEED 12 months in that post, not including Foundation Year 2 posts).

At present, there will be NO ST2 posts unless someone drops out. ST3 posts are also thought to be rare.

However, with the Tooke review, it is extremely likely that ST3 will become uncoupled from ST1/ST2 in future years. This means (in theory) that current FTSTAs will still be able to get onto registrar training in the future. However, the earliest that this is likely to change (at present) in is 2009/2010.