Within the South-East Deanery in Scotland, doctors in the foundation years are distributed across 12 groups. These groups are designated S1-S12. Each group generally comprises 15 doctors. Each group has a number of four-month training posts allocated to it. The doctors within each group are assigned to these posts before the commencement of each academic year. All groups contain a mixture of surgical and non-surgical posts to give trainees exposure to a variety of medical experiences in their foundation years before committing themselves to a specialty training program after the Foundation Year Two (F2) year. Within each group the Foundation Year One (F1) and Two (F2) posts tend to be balanced, so that if there are numerous surgical posts to choose from in F1, there will be fewer in F2 and vice-versa. Broad, generic training Even if you are committed to a surgical career from your medical student days, you will need to rotate through several non-surgical posts. This is in accordance with the underlying philosophy of the General Medical Council and Modernising Medical Careers programs which is to provide broad, generic training to junior doctors in their foundation years. This article was published on 2024-02-06
