Acute Care Common Stem (ACCS) Emergency Medicine ST/CT1 

Applications are invited for an ACCS Emergency Medicine training programme at CT1/ST1 level across England, Scotland and Wales starting from August 2025. The recruitment is led by London Recruitment Team on behalf of the three participating UK nations and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. 

Emergency Medicine involves the initial resuscitation and clinical care for patients of all age groups and across all clinical specialties. Programmes cover both rural and urban environments, while catchment populations include the extremes of wealth and poverty. Fast-moving, multidisciplinary teams empower and develop all staff groups to enable them to deliver their best standards of care. 

Emergency Medicine is defined by the International Federation for Emergency Medicine as a field of practice based on the knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury affecting patients of all age groups with a full spectrum of undifferentiated physical and behavioural disorders. It further encompasses an understanding of the development of pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency medical systems and the skills necessary for this development’.  

Please note that there is a strict application policy that applications cannot be accepted after the deadline. 

The training programme is equally open to those who may, either from the outset or subsequently, wish to train flexibly or job share. 

CT1/ST1 – Training Route Selection  

Recruitment to ACCS Emergency Medicine in 2024-2025 will be offered as a core (CT1) or run-through option at (ST1). Following acceptance of an offer, successful applicants will be given a further opportunity to finalise their training route choice. Further guidance on the process of confirming this will be included in the programme offer letter.

With run-through training (ST1), progression is uninterrupted; applicants start in specialty training year 1 (ST1), and progress through ST2, ST3, ST4, ST5 and ST6 automatically, provided the necessary curriculum requirements are fully satisfied. These requirements include satisfactory ARCP outcomes and exam progression.  Although run-through training is uninterrupted there are still plenty of opportunities on a run-through training programme to take time out to fulfil your broader interests. OOPs (out of training programme opportunities) are widely supported in all EM training programmes.

Uncoupled training (CT1) is split into the same initial three years of core training for ACCS Emergency Medicine (ACCS CT1 and CT2 and EM CT3).  With this path, entry to ST4 is by a competitive application process via national higher Emergency Medicine recruitment.  The same requirements to progress from CT3 to ST4 are necessary, which includes successful ARCP outcome and exam progression. There is no guarantee that there will be vacancies in the region applicants wish to apply for at ST4, nor will applicants automatically be able to stay in the same region for Higher Specialty (HST) training.

Uncoupled and Run-through training each give opportunities to the individual trainee. The content of the training programme and its delivery are the same. It is recommended that decisions regarding the choice of type of training programme (run through training or core) are made after careful thought, including a recommendation to discuss opportunities with colleagues, mentors or local programme directors. Please note, once you commence in your training post, it will not be possible to change your training pathway from Core (uncoupled) to Run-through or vice versa.

Applicant guidance

Guidance is available via the Medical Specialty Recruitment Applicant guidance for 2025 which includes guidance generic across specialties. In addition to this, supplementary guidance which is specific to ACCS Emergency Medicine, is available on the Medical Training Recruitment website. 

The supplementary guidance contains detailed information about how to complete your application form, the shortlisting process, interview process and preferences. All applicants must read this thoroughly before starting to complete an application form.

Links to both resources are available in the hyperlinks section.

Summary of change for recruitment process 2024/2025

Please ensure you check the specialty applicant guidance carefully to confirm the appropriate method to demonstrate your foundation competence. 

All applicants are required to demonstrate attainment of Foundation competences. For more information on competences please refer to the Medical Training Recruitment website for information about what you will need to do. Applicant required to submit evidence of their competences at time of application need to upload this with application form. If you are required to submit a Certificate of Readiness to Enter Specialty Training (CREST) form with your application and do not do so then you will not be offered another opportunity to upload it and your application will not proceed to the next stage of the process.

You can only submit the CREST 2024 for this recruitment round. You can find it here.

Reasonable adjustments and Disability Confident Scheme:  

For information regarding reasonable adjustments and Disability Confident Scheme please refer to  the Medical Specialty Recruitment website

Please review the person specification, available on the hyperlinks tab, for the full eligibility criteria for this specialty.

Eligibility Criteria for recruitment to Specialty Training – Immigration Requirements 

All medical practitioners are on the shortage occupation list, so all specialty recruitment applicants will be exempt from the resident labour market test.

The Medical Specialty Recruitment website has guidance for applicants requiring a visa. 

Fitness to Practice

If you have made a positive declaration in the FTP section, you must follow this up by completing our form on the support portal, you must contact London recruitment office via support portal by the close of the application window. Failure to provide the outlined information by the close of application may result in your application being withdrawn.

Key dates & information 

A full timeline can be found in the Supplementary Applicant guidance:              

MSRA Window: 2nd January to 13th January 2025

Interview Dates:  13th February  – 19 February 2025

Interview venue:  Remote Interviews   via Qpercom Recruit

Shortlisting process  

As part of the selection process for 2025 recruitment all longlisted applicants will be required to take a Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA). This will form the basis of your shortlisting score. Further information on the shortlisting stages and the MSRA can be found in the Applicant Supplementary Handbook and MSRA Guidance Document. 

Interview process 

All interviews will be held remotely. For more information please refer to the supplementary applicant guidance. 

Programme preferences 

You will not be asked to give preferences of specific programmes at the application stage. These will be given at a later stage via Oriel in 2025; more information will follow at a later stage for those still in competition at that time. 

Contacts / Enquiries  

Please visit the PGMDE Support Portal, where you will find a series of FAQs, and you will be able to submit an enquiry to the London Recruitment Team.  

Indicative post numbers   

Please click this link  https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/emergency-medicine/core-emergency-medicine/overview-of-core-training/posts for updated post information

Please note that post numbers and post information are subject to change.