Foundation Doctor's Guide to East Anglia

Updated for 2022 Applicants

East Anglia foundation school encompasses a large portion of the east of England. The deanery covers Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire.

There are a mixture of specialist centres and busy DGHs. Addenbrooke’s Hospital is a major trauma centre, Liver transplant centre, neurosurgical centre and has the largest neurological intensive care unit of its kind in Europe. Royal Papworth Hospital is one of the world’s leading cardiothoracic hospitals and UK’s main heart and lung transplant centre. The University of East Anglia and Cambridge University send their medical students to hospitals around the deanery so you have the opportunity to be involved in medical education both within your hospital and at the universities themselves.

As the deanery is quite widespread most people choose to live in more central town areas and commute to work. Driving is useful and sometimes necessary, as certain shifts will end outside of the operating hours of public transport, however, most hospitals have on-call rooms for this reason. There are excellent transport links from Cambridge, Norwich and Peterborough to the rest of the country.

There are many beaches to visit along the east coast of England, and opportunities to sail on the Broads. You can even learn to paddleboard and surf whilst admiring the local wildlife which includes seals in Horsey.

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Foundation School Statistics

2021 F1 Places: 251
2021 F1 Applicants: 121
2021 Competition Ratio: 0.48
2020 Competition Ratio: 0.61

‍Below is an interactive bar chart displaying the competition ratios, lowest entry scores, and the number of posts over the past 5 years.
Please note that the 2021 data for lowest entry score is not yet available, we will update this graph when it is.

How Does East Anglia Compare To Other Foundation Schools?

Check out our article "What are the most competitive foundations schools?" for a full breakdown.

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Hospitals, Overall Satisfaction, And CQC Ratings

In the graph below you'll find a list of hospitals attached the the East Anglia foundation school. Each hospital is scored out of 100 in overall satisfaction for the GMC Survey 2019 data. The colour corresponds to the CQC rating of that hospital

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A Doctor’s View

“I spent my F1 & F2, in a small, well supported and very friendly DGH, Bedford Hospital. Initially I chose it so I could commute from London, only an hour each way. But soon, I got fed up with the commute and decided to stay in Bedford. This was probably one of the best decisions I had made and I stayed with a few other foundation doctors. After exploring the surrounding area, initial pre-conceptions of Bedford Hospital were quickly forgotten about. The beautiful countryside, with lovely walks and pubs made Bedford a delightful area.

Road transport is relatively good around Bedford – close to London with the M25, M1, A1 & M11. But unfortunately in most of Norfolk & Suffolk there is a distinct lack of motorways. Trains however run throughout the region, going into Kings Cross, London.”

Toby Gould, Foundation Year 1 & 2 at Bedford Hospital

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