An IMG/ Ethnic Minority Perspective This place usually gets rave reviews, predominately from white people who make up the vast majority of the staff working there. So I'd like to give the perspective of an IMG/ minority. I'll first start with the positives. The staff there are generally very friendly and the job has lots of senior support. That's pretty much where the positives ended for me. Due to the lack of diversity, being an IMG and/or minority there brings a lot of unique challenges. For instance, I was on the receiving end of several microagressions from staff and patients, which although is just ignorance it can wear you down after a while. Likewise the people you work with may have a lot of ingrained implicit biases about IMGs/minorities. For example, if you make a very minor mistake, you don't receive the same benefit of the doubt as your white colleagues who could do the same and it wouldn't be an issue. In other words, they are assumed to be competent, but you must prove yourself at all times and never let your guard down in order to be deemed competent by your colleagues. This can be exhausting but it's necessary for your progression. In a similar vein, although colleagues can smile to your face and be friendly, they can occasionally slip up and expose their internal thoughts about IMGs/minorities. For example, a very senior member of staff called minorities "coloured people with funny accents" in a grand round. Likewise when covid happened, in another staff meeting, the person leading the meeting made a xenophobic joke about China. Of course not every IMG/minority will have had the same experience there, but I've spoken to quite a few who have echoed my experience. All in all, if you want somewhere diverse and inclusive, I wouldn't recommend going there, but if you do end up going, then I implore you to go with your eyes wide open, work very hard and don't give them any opportunity to doubt your abilities.

Wouldn't recommend this department. No team cohesiveness, several of the consultants are severely lacking in leadership skills, some of them will even do the ward alone without saying a word to you, so you have to figure out what to do. The nurses are ok, but many can't do simple bloods, cannulas or ABGs, which is shocking for nurses working on a respiratory ward. Respiratory medicine can be really interesting but this is not a good department to learn about it.

Excellent placement. Protected time for self directed study and child protection cases. Lovely team with a supportive ethos. Often very busy on calls but you learn alot.