Foundation Doctor's Guide to North Scotland

The Northern region is significantly the vastest. It encompasses the old cities of Aberdeen and Inverness (considered the capital of the Highlands, near the infamous Loch Ness), and all the way up to the more isolated John O’ Groats, the Shetland Islands and Stornoway. If you’re a fan of the outdoors, there may not be anywhere better in the UK for truly experiencing the great British outdoors. Being more isolated doesn’t correlate to a less social experience, generally, it’s quite the opposite!

In terms of tertiary centres, in the North of Scotland, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is the main specialist hospital, being a major trauma centre, offering nearly every specialty (excluding heart and liver transplants). It also has on its grounds a dedicated paediatrics and dedicated maternity hospital.

Scotland is one foundation school but split into 4 separate regions: East, North, South East & West. Most of the spots available are in the West (around Glasgow) & South East (around Edinburgh).

Messly wants to help doctors make evidence-based decisions about their careers. We’ve put together a short guide to the North region of Scotland Foundation School to help you rank your rotation programmes. Below is a snapshot of hospital ratings and reviews from the Messly community of doctors together with information about the geography of the region.

Foundation School Statistics (Whole of Scotland)

2020 F1 Places: 779
2020 F1 Applicants: 756 (54 Academic Foundation posts)
2020 Competition Ratio: 0.97
2019 Competition Ratio: 1.06
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Hospitals

From early 2021, Messly’s updated Training Navigator will be released which will show in-depth reviews & GMC ratings on each Foundation Training rotation in each deanery.