Foundation Doctor's Guide to North West London

Stretching from central London to the M25 at Hillingdon in the west and Harrow in the north, North West London Foundation School has always been one of the most competitive deaneries. This is in part due to the attraction of working in some of the prestigious tertiary hospitals that call it home, and also because of the guarantee of being able to live in London for both years.

Foundation School Statistics

2020 F1 Places: 233
2020 F1 Applicants: 692 (27 Academic Foundation posts)
2020 Competition Ratio: 2.97
2019 Competition Ratio: 3.10
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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.

Central Middlesex Hospital
Charing Cross Hospital
Chelsea & Westminster Hospital
Ealing Hospital
Hammersmith Hospital
Hillingdon Hospital
Northwick Park Hospital
St Mary’s Hospital
The Royal Marsden Hospital
West Middlesex University Hospital

The large teaching hospitals are St Mary’s (the regional major trauma centre), Charing Cross (provides specialist neurosurgery) and Chelsea & Westminster (provides specialist hand surgery services and is a specialist HIV/GUM centre).

A Doctor’s Experience

“I picked North West London Foundation School as I wanted the opportunity to live and work in London whilst in my early twenties, and experience city life. I felt that NWTFS was a good deanery as it is quite small and so I could live in the same place for the 2 years. I chose to spend the first year in a district general hospital, and my second in an inner-city hospital. I think it’s good to do it this way around. My first hospital was small and friendly so I felt I could settle in easily, and there were lots of opportunities to learn to be more independent.

Based on the geographical location of my hospitals, I chose to live in Willesden Junction. Although not particularly gentrified, it has fantastic transport links with both the Overground and Bakerloo lines, and the rent is reasonable. I cycle to work and I have found that this is a cheap, fast, and easy way to get around. I would bear this in mind – not only will it take longer to get places by car, but you will likely have to pay to park outside your home, at work, and may even have to pay a congestion charge.

The social side of North West Thames Foundation Schools is really great. Each hospital has a mess which organises monthly payday parties with fun activities or money behind a bar. Each hospital has different mess fees. For some e.g. Chelsea and Westminster there are no mess fees, for others a small monthly fee which comes out of your wages e.g. Ealing £15/month. This includes access to the mess where there is tea, coffee, cereal, snacks etc. and on weekends PIZZA! There are also bi-annual balls in Winter and Summer. Inter-hospital and even inter-deanery parties have also been organised in the past, so it is a great way to meet new people and have fun with your colleagues.”

Written by Alisha Maria – Foundation Year 2 at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital

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