Hello,

So there's two main factors at play here, there is your commission but also your return of service.

At the minute Army MOs will (almost always) automatically convert their commission in ST3 to allow them to continue specialty training.

It depends on what you choose to specialise in in regards to your return of service (the bit that really matters). For GPs, as soon as we start training we are signing up to 3 years of GP training with a 4 year return of service after we finish training.

I believe for most secondary care specialties you don't actually agree to a return of service until you get your training number/finish ST3, so if you did want to leave at this transition point, it would be possible. You would not need to go back and start at ST1 if you returned to the NHS.

The easiest way to think of it is probably; return of service is the amount of time you have to stay, whereas, length of commission is the maximum amount of time you can stay (and you can apply to convert/extend this at various key points in your career, like ST3).

It's probably also worth highlighting that you don't have to stay for specialty training, you can leave after 3 years as a GDMO and do your specialty training entirely with the NHS.

I hope that is helpful, let me know if you want me to go in to more detail on any points or if you have any other questions.

06 January, 2021 22:22

Hi Tori! Thank you so much!

I had a question. I was interested in EM - say I got to do this speciality after GDMO. Would I be able to do dual CCT with ICM for example within the army? Or for example, sub-specialise in sports medicine, PHEM or wilderness medicine within the army?

Many thanks!

14 February, 2021 19:30

Hello,

I had no idea on this one, so forwarded your question to a friendly EM trainee for some help! Her answer is below;

Yes to PHEM (but very competitive).
Maybe to ICM - currently there is an RAF trainee doing it as a trial and then it will be decided if others could also apply. Historically it has been difficult to get a job plan for ICM/EM without 50:50 splitting it with another consultant.
Sports medicine - kind of. It's not a dual CCT, and you would be unlikely to have it in your job plan, but many EM trainees/consultants will cover sports events in their own time.
Wilderness medicine - you can do DIP mountain medicine/extreme medicine and there are EM consultants who are cold weather specialists and spend a lot of time in Norway but again it's not a not something you can dual CCT in as such.
At the minute the only dual CCTs with EM are PEM/PHEM/ICM - anything else tends to be a special interest.

Hope that helps!

14 February, 2021 19:49