Foundation Doctor's 2024 Guide to Northern
Updated for 2024 Applicants
Northern Foundation School is part of Health Education North East and stretches from West to East coast, covering Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and Durham counties.
It contains some of the northern powerhouse specialist hospitals including the Great North Children’s Hospital (with a paediatric bone-marrow transplant centre) and James Cook University Hospital (a major trauma & research centre). For those with a love for the outdoors, the Lake District, with the most stunning and interesting walks, hikes & climbs in the UK overlooking the national park, is within commutable distance.
It goes without saying that Newcastle, Sunderland, and Middlesbrough are young and fun cities with a great social scene, often with joint hospital events. Carlisle, Penrith & West Cumberland hospitals are great fun too, with more intimate atmospheres.
Commuting between Newcastle & Sunderland is easy-peasy, but transport networks become slightly hairy further west towards the Lake District. But who cares? It’s the Lake District, there shouldn’t be cars there anyway!
Foundation School Statistics
2023 F1 Places: 443
2023 F1 Applicants: 422
2023 Competition Ratio: 0.95
2022 F1 Places: 331
2022 F1 Applicants: 261
2022 Competition Ratio: 0.79
2021 F1 Places: 329
2021 F1 Applicants: 293
2021 Competition Ratio: 0.89
Below is an interactive bar chart displaying the competition ratios, and the number of posts over the past 5 years.
How Does EBH Northern To Other Foundation Schools?
Check out our article "What are the most competitive foundations schools?" for a full breakdown.
Hospitals, Rotation Scores, CQC Ratings
In the chart below you'll find a list of hospitals attached to the Northern 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 2023 GMC NTS. The national average Rotation Score is 57 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.
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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