Foundation Doctor's 2023 Guide to Peninsula

Updated for 2023 Applicants

Peninsula Foundation School covers Devon and Cornwall, with hospitals based in Exeter, Plymouth, Barnstaple and Truro. It is a part of Peninsula Postgraduate Medical Education, which is in turn a part of Health Education England.

The teaching hospitals in Peninsula include the Royal Devon & Exeter hospital (with the attached specialist Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic centre), Derriford hospital (the regional centre for cardio-thoracic, renal medicine and plastic surgery) and the Royal Cornwall Hospital (regional specialist unit for paediatrics and maternity).

All the programmes are 2-year linked, so every applicant will know where they will be for the entire duration. In more than half of the programmes you are based in the same hospital for both years, which makes it easy to choose a home base.

It’s feasible to commute between Exeter, Torbay and Plymouth (by car), but for placements in Truro and Barnstaple, you’d need to base yourself closer to these hospitals.

Peninsula is ideal for those who love the outdoors and particularly the sea – all the hospitals are near the coast, and Truro and Barnstaple are near great surfing beaches.

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Join The Facebook Group

You can Join the Peninsula Foundation School page here, plus the group for all UKFP 2023 trainee's here.

Foundation School Statistics

2022 F1 Places: 206
2022 F1 Applicants: 169
2022 Competition Ratio: 0.82

2021 F1 Places: 184
2021 F1 Applicants: 175
2021 Competition Ratio: 0.95

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 2022 data for lowest entry score is not yet available, we will update this graph when it is.‍

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How Does Peninsula 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, Rotation Scores, CQC Ratings

In the chart below you'll find a list of hospitals attached to the Peninsula Foundation School, and an average of their Rotation Scores from Messly’s Training Navigator. Each rotation is given a score out of 100, which is based on a weighted average of ratings given by Foundation Trainees in the 2022 GMC NTS. The national average Rotation Score is 62 for reference.

Colours correspond to the latest CQC rating of that hospital.

Disclaimer: Please note that hospitals are unscored when there are insufficient responses by Foundation Trainees to the GMC’s NTS survey.

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Need Help Ranking Your Foundation Programmes?

Rank your Foundation Programme rotations with confidence with Messly’s Training Navigator. See how rotations are rated by last year’s foundation trainees to make smarter decisions about where you’ll spend your Foundation Training.

You can use it to answer questions like:‍

👉  Which are the best-rated and worst-rated rotations in my Foundation School?
👉  How do the rotations compare for Workload, Learning and Satisfaction?
👉  Which is the best hospital for my favourite specialties?
👉  Within a hospital, which rotations are best-rated?

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