How To Prepare For The CT1 Anaesthetics Interview

Anaesthetists form the largest single hospital medical specialty and their skills are used in all aspects of patient care. Whilst the preoperative anaesthetic care of the surgical patient is the core of specialty work (and this includes all types of surgery from simple body surface surgery in adults to the most complex surgery in patients of all ages, including the premature newborn) many anaesthetists have a much wider scope of practice which may include:

The preoperative preparation of surgical patients
The resuscitation and stabilisation of patients in the Emergency Department
Pain relief in labour and obstetric anaesthesia
Intensive care medicine
Transport of acutely ill and injured patients
Pre-hospital emergency care
Pain medicine including:
The relief of post-operative pain
Acute pain medicine and the management of acute teams
Chronic and cancer pain management
The provision of sedation and anaesthesia for patients undergoing various procedures outside the operating theatre. Examples of this include different endoscopic procedures, interventional radiology and dental surgery (this list is not exclusive)

The Anaesthetics National Recruitment Office (ANRO), part of Health Education England working across the West Midlands, co-ordinates the nationally agreed and quality assured process for recruitment to Anaesthetics/ACCS Anaesthetics Core Training Programmes (CT1).
Recruitment to Core Training (CT1) posts will take place twice a year, once for August starts and once for February starts.
All submitted applications for Anaesthetics training will be assessed using a standard, national and consistent staged process outlined using modern methodologies that are fair, robust and fit for purpose.
For an Anaesthetics training post, an applicant makes one application for all participating Health Education England (HEE) Local Offices, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), Northern Ireland Medical & Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA) and the Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW). At the time of application, you will be required to choose which ‘cluster’ you want to be considered for posts in England & Wales or Northern Ireland or Scotland.
If you preference Scotland as your cluster then you must attend an online interview conducted by Scotland, similarly if you preference Northern Ireland you must attend an online interview conducted by Northern Ireland. If you preference England & Wales as your cluster you can book any slot on a preferred date of those available. Depending on which cluster you preference will depend where you are considered for appointment. Applicants who preference Scotland will be considered for Scottish posts only, Northern Ireland will be considered for Northern Ireland posts only and England and Wales will be considered for appointment across both nations.
The method being used in England and Wales is known as a Single Transferable Score (STS) as applicants are not restricted to only being offered a post in the area they attended an online interview. The system is designed to maximise the numbers of applicants and opportunities for successful appointment.