Generally enjoyable job. Lots of complex gastro patients, some linked to St Mark's, and generally consultants were kind and supportive. Not much general gastro teaching meant most learning was gained from observation of seniors. Did not get as much experience with practical procedures as I may have wanted, if I were to do it again I would ask for this earlier. Lots of pressure on the F1/F2s for for TTAs/discharge summaries. Notorious as one of the more busy medical jobs at Northwick and a bit of a shock to the system on starting but once you get the hang of all the investigations/pathways etc necessary it becomes easier. Used to be the case that you covered medical outliers on one of the surgical wards which was stressful, not sure if this is still the case any more. Northwick itself has an excellent medical education department. Not uncommon to stay late but seniors were very encouraging of exception reporting to their credit.

Has a reputation for having the busiest and most varied acute take in the deanery colloquially known as the triple 6 job, you spend 6 weeks on take day in, day out, 6 weeks on AMU, 6 weeks on the stroke unit. Thankfully there is a large take team in hours and a dedicated take registrar at all times separate from the ward registrar out of hours, makes a huge difference when the workload starts increasing and your take registrar isn't busy fighting fires in the hospital Throughout the day there are 2-3 consultants on take and they are generally very approachable and will take the time to teach There are a few characters with a reputation that precedes them, you will quickly be made aware of who they are and how to handle them, the job would be better if these people demonstrated some humility but the demands of the NHS are such that medical consultants willing to staff busy acute takes are a dime-a-dozen and as such, they wont be going anywhere On-calls on this job are one evening a week and one weekend in five on the stroke unit, which at present is the most demanding and stressful job in the hospital in a department with some unfortunately very difficult personalities and as such makes the job hard to recommend.

Lovely F1 job especially for those interested in paediatrics. Consultants were all kind, two daily consultant ward rounds, and some in particular were real gems who would mentor you if interested in paediatrics. Varied patient demographics in the area meant you sometimes would see rare cases and often were liaising with tertiary hospitals about complex patients, great for learning. The long term senior nurses on the ward were real gems. A&E shifts were at times extremely busy and overwhelming especially as one of the most junior team members but I never felt under pressure from seniors. Almost daily teaching/MDTs etc so lots of learning opportunities. Certainly one of the best jobs for F1s in Northwick. Also got some experience of community/neonates

What appears at first to be a cushy 100% teaching fellow job quickly becomes a full-time with 'on call' (see below) as seniors will dump any and all responsibilities onto the juniors (if you give them an inch, etc). Well-coordinated department and mostly friendly and supportive but unfortunately incredibly toxic head of department where everyone is afraid to call them out on it. When bullying / undermining behaviour starts at the top there is not much to be done other than suck it up and move on once contract is up.

Toxic department, one of the consultants frequently demonstrated bullying/undermining behaviour and extreme micro-managing and a lack of insight into this Not addressed by other senior team members despite being raised on numerous occasions A shame because the potential is there to forge outstanding working relationships in a high turnover unit with innumerable opportunities to manage acutely unwell patients many issues with middle grade supervision due to the demands of unit being a HASU and middle grades being required to attend stroke calls, leaving a single F1 responsible for all patients at weekends Handovers done on a word document, disaster waiting to happen if the document is lost or if there is an emergency and time critical handovers on the word doc are not verbally handed over

Very friendly and supportive environment- lots of senior support with consultants very involved in patient care. Normally leave on time, manageable workload and good staffing. You are part of the acute rota on most wards so do 3 weekends in 4 months and a block of long days about every 2-3 weeks.