NHS England have agreed to pause the recruitment to ALL IST posts in England for 2026. The number of surgical training places will be maintained as posts will be added back into core surgical recruitment.

Wales and Scotland will continue to recruit to run through IST.

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

There are national changes to the recruitment process in relation to GMC eligibility and maximum application limits and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) interviews

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

If you need to upload FPCC with your application please ensure it is uploaded before you submit, if you do not, then you will not be offered an opportunity to upload it and your application will not proceed to the next stage.

If you are required to submit a Certificate of Readiness to Enter Specialty Training 2024 (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.

The system used to do this is Qpercom (the same system to interview) and detailed information will be provided at the point of invitation.

All applicants applying to specialty training are required to have essential competences or equivalent depending on the level they are applying for. For more information on competences please refer to the resource bank on Oriel via www.oriel.nhs.uk/Web/ResourceBank and the national CT1/ST1 person specification can be downloaded via the National Specialty Training Website: Person Specifications 2026 | Medical Hub

Preferencing Posts: Preferencing will be made available via Oriel in 2026 and further information can be found on the Medical Specialty Training website. Applicants will be able to preference uncoupled Core Surgical Training posts, Improving Surgical Training pilot posts, Otolaryngology Pilot posts, or a combination of the aforementioned. – what are these posts?

Please upload all required evidence of competences to your application form when completing it online. For those experiencing difficulties when uploading evidence, please ensure you contact the team via the PGMDE support portal: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/home

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 the London recruitment office via the support portal by the close of the application window. Failure to provide the outlined information by the close of the application may result in your application being withdrawn.

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.

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

All medical practitioners are on the shortage occupation list, this means with the exception of all applicants to Public Health, all specialty recruitment applicants will be exempt from the resident labour market test (RLMT).

A full timeline can be found on the Medical Specialty Training website available here: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/surgery/core-surgery

Interview dates: Monday 2 March to Wednesday 11 March 2026

Interview venue: Remote Interviews

Posts commence from: 5 August 2026

The Medical Specialty Training website contains detailed information about how to complete your application form, the shortlisting process, interview process and preferences. We therefore recommend that all applicants read the website thoroughly before starting to complete an application form.

As part of the selection process for 2026 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 on the Medical Specialty Training website.

Document checking: A list of documents required for interview is available under the downloads on document section of the website.

Length of interview: 30 minutes

Interview structure: Two station interview. The stations will cover different criteria from the person specification. There will be a 15-minute management and clinical station, a separate 15-minute portfolio station.

Preferencing will be made available via Oriel in 2026 and further information can be found on the Medical Specialty Training website. Applicants will be able to preference uncoupled Core Surgical Training posts, Improving Surgical Training pilot posts, Otolaryngology Pilot posts, or a combination of the aforementioned.

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.

Programmes will be confirmed directly with the candidate by the appropriate local recruitment office should applicants be successful at interview

Indicative vacancy numbers are available in the table below and broken down by region. In many cases these will be presented as a range (e.g. 25-35) as it is not always possible for regions to know at this stage how many vacancies there will be.

It is the intention that indicative post numbers for all regions will be published prior to the application opening date, although this cannot be guaranteed. Please note that this table is not likely to be updated subsequent to indicative numbers and actual numbers will be confirmed when programme preferences are opened later in the round.

Region - Indicative Numbers

East Midlands 36-40

East of England 50-60

Kent, Surrey and Sussex 36-40

London 86-91

North East 28-32

North West – North Western 45-57

North West – Mersey 25-33

South West – Peninsula 21-24

South West – Severn 25-28

Thames Valley 29-31

Wessex 27-30

West Midlands 45-53

Yorkshire and Humber 50-54

Scotland 54-56

Wales 41-43

Numbers subject to change

Please be aware that it is not uncommon for vacancy numbers to change as the round progresses.

More commonly, post vacancy numbers can increase as the round goes on (and confirmation of posts becomes available); but it is also possible that numbers can reduce as well.