Foundation Doctor's 2024 Guide to East Anglia
Updated for 2024 Applicants
For 2024 applicants, the former Foundation Schools of East Anglia and Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire (EBH) have been merged to form the new East of England Foundation School.
Successful applicants to the East of England Foundation School will be asked to preference either the East Anglia group or the EBH group on Oriel before ranking their job preferences.
The following information relates to the East Anglia group within the East of England Foundation School.
East Anglia foundation school is a part of Health Education East of England, and 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.
Applicants to East Anglia are informed of their full F1 and F2 training programme rotations by the start of their F1 Years, though they will not necessarily remain in the same hospital for both years. They will, however, be able to remain in the same group (East Anglia vs EBH).
Foundation School Statistics
2023 Places: 335
2023 F1 Applicants: 134
2023 Competition Ratio: 0.40
2022 Places: 276
2022 F1 Applicants: 148
2022 Competition Ratio: 0.54
2021 F1 Places: 251
2021 F1 Applicants: 121
2021 Competition Ratio: 0.48
Below is an interactive bar chart displaying the competition ratios and the number of posts over the past 5 years.
How Does East Anglia Compare 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 East Anglia 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?
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
QUICK REVIEWS
Find locum work on your terms
The best locum agencies together in one place, competing to find you the best locum shifts. Managed for free through your Messly account.
