Scottish Medical Training

The ACCS-IM programme in the East of Scotland provides core training in the acute care specialities, with the aim of producing multi-competent doctors able to recognise and manage the sick patient and who have the capabilities required for subsequent higher speciality training in Acute Internal Medicine, or indeed any other JRCPTB speciality. 

ACCS-IM is a four-year programme, successful completion of which fulfils the Internal Medicine Stage 1 Curriculum, enabling entry to Group 1 and Group 2 higher physician specialties. Completion of the third year of ACCS-IM will enable entry to Group 2 physician specialties only.

Years 1 & 2

During the initial two years (CT1/CT2) of the ACCS programme, you will spend six months in each of the four core specialties:

• anaesthetics
• critical care medicine
• acute medicine
• emergency medicine

During these first 2 years you will work towards completing the generic ACCS curriculum.

Year 3 & 4

In years three and four you will be doing the equivalent of IMT year 2 and 3, generally consisting of four-month posts in general medical specialties. The Internal Medicine Stage 1 Curriculum has more information about what this entails, but your IMT3 year seen as an early and supported introduction to being the Medical Registrar. 

Where is the training delivered

In the East of Scotland your first year of training will usually be with the Anaesthetics and Critical Care Medicine departments at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

Your second year of training will usually be in Acute and Emergency Medicine departments – again largely in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, but may also include time at our neighbouring DGH, Perth Royal Infirmary (PRI): just 20 miles away, with excellent road links.

Years 3 and 4 of the programme are again delivered between Ninewells Hospital, Dundee and Perth Royal Infirmary, but may also include Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert.

Our department has a strong history of involvement with local and national research projects and quality improvement initiatives that offer trainees opportunities to showcase their talents nationally.

For example, we collaborated with the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care and Macmillan on the Building on the Best (Scotland) project to improve end-of-life cares in acute hospitals. We identified a need to address our junior doctors’ knowledge/experience gap with difficult conversations, which led to a very successful, trainee-developed role play project that was mentioned at the NHSScotland event 2019.

We have links with the University of Dundee, and have taken part in a reflexive ethnography study that used video to explore inter-professional interactions. Debrief sessions enabled our medical/nursing staff to co-construct better handover practices as QI work (which we now employ during our daily board rounds) to mitigate risks and enhance patient safety.

In the wake of the pandemic, we joined a larger CSO-funded project on supporting healthcare workers’ wellbeing during COVID-19.  The “How Was Your Day?”app that was developed (and praised in 2021’s CMO’s report) allowed us to view live (anonymised) data, and led to a trainee project to improve positive feedback that was presented at the NES Conference in 2021.

We continue to encourage and support our trainees to lead on educational/quality improvement projects, which over time become embedded within our department’s way of working.

Training in the East of Scotland rotation is delivered in Ninewells Hospital, Dundee and our neighbouring DGH, Perth Royal Infirmary (PRI) - just 20 miles away, with excellent road links.