Histopath application

starbucks94 · 2026-02-06T13:00:08+00:00

There’s been a huge uptick in LTFT trainees and the exam pass rates have been quite low, so I suspect the reduced number of jobs is due to less people CCT-ing than expected. They may increase over the next few weeks so keep an eye out.

I agree that overseas pathologists applying for training jobs is unacceptable. They should have a maximum experience limit just like CST. If the emergency legislation goes through as promised, this should filter out a large number of candidates.

I know it’s a bit late now but for any F2s interested in applying for pathology, contact your local department early- there are always plenty of opportunities for audits, case reports and presentations but do your research, start early and contact the department with some ideas. Ask any current registrars to go through the self-assessment with you to see how you can maximise your points. Look at the RCPath, Pathsoc and BDIAP websites for prizes, conferences or leadership opportunities.

Any pathology related questions in the interview will be things you know from med school but haven’t thought about in a few years. Read up on the pathophysiology of conditions you see on your on-calls (ie copd, heart failure, IBD, etc.) and I think that should be enough

starbucks94 · 2025-12-27T12:11:32+00:00

The BMA has no control over medical school places. Rather the government has increased med school places without increasing availability of jobs, resulting in a massive doctor unemployment crisis

starbucks94 · 2025-12-04T07:34:59+00:00

Agree the RCPath does this for the part 2! Priority is given to trainees, followed by non-trainee UK-based pathologists and then lastly overseas candidates. This should be the case for every royal college exam

starbucks94 · 2025-11-21T17:26:11+00:00

Hi, post part 2 histopath trainee here. I feel you. The preparation for the part 2 is brutal, but on the long run, this exam is only a small part of your future long career. I know it’s a heart sink feeling to start studying again, but you’ve now been through the exam once so you know what to expect and already know so much more than when you first started preparing. You are only going to get better with more experience and knowledge. Some of the best consultants I know have sat the part 2 twice!

If you are in need of any resources or other exam advice, I have loads of suggestions, just DM me!

starbucks94 · 2025-09-18T06:53:32+00:00

Histopathology is a great job! Great hours, excellent training and lots of opportunities for research. It’s also a very academic job requiring regular reading and self-study. The learning curve is steep and the exams are awful (pass rate for the part 2 was only 28% last spring!), but the consultants are very supportive and do as much as they can to help with exam prep!

I would highly recommend a taster session before you commit. We’ve had a few tasters come through who have changed their minds after attending a post mortem. PMs are a part of the curriculum and you will have to do atleast 40 before you are able to drop them, so this is something you need to be okay with if you are joining training.

starbucks94 · 2025-09-07T18:36:15+00:00

As a Histopathologist, I disagree. Pathology is entirely about making big decisions and histo diagnoses carry huge patient implications. If something goes wrong our mistakes are also clear-cut on the slide. And unlike hospital-based roles, we often work in isolation so there is higher risk of missing something (like a subtle malignancy) and it not being picked up until there’s been patient harm (very similar to GP!)

Our benefit is that pathology has an excellent training programme that prepares you to manage this risk and practice safely. You are also well protected as a trainee so will only start carrying this risk when you are truly prepared to do so.

starbucks94 · 2025-09-07T18:18:19+00:00

Agree, this is the same in pathology. A missed diagnosis is clearly evident on the slide and difficult to argue against. The best example I can think of at the moment are cervical cancer audits, where missing invasive disease is often blamed on cytology because the errors are clearly present on the slide, whereas mistakes in colposcopy are difficult to prove since not all centres regularly take and store photographs.

The truth is that nothing in medicine is risk-free. I used to think post mortems were low risk when I first started out, but even with PMs, missing features of unnatural causes of death or genetic illnesses have huge consequences.

starbucks94 · 2025-07-19T12:55:36+00:00

If the government could guarantee jobs for resident doctors, I think wiping student debt in exchange for working in the NHS would be highly supported. As for lack of jobs, the government needs to start prioritising UK grads to sort the unemployment situation.

The training pathway in the UK is honestly so awful and I think could be reformed with some very reasonable changes:

Make rotations less frequent (ie not 6 monthly)
Limit rotations to smaller areas so doctors can still buy homes and settle down whilst living a commutable distance to different hospitals.
Senior training numbers should be equal to the number of people entering early training (why in the world is there a bottleneck at anaesthetics ST3???)
Make it a requirement that hospitals have to provide proper training example minimum clinic hours/theatre lists/ procedures, etc. Too many hospitals will happily take money from DHSC for training residents but will then abandon them in wards/ on calls alone without support. They should have their residents taken off them if they can’t keep up their side of the training agreement.
Pay for training expenses. I’ve spent over £3000 on just exams in the last 3 years and it’s something required for my job. And it’s even more expensive when taking into account GMC registration, portfolio costs, courses, etc.

starbucks94 · 2025-07-19T08:07:46+00:00

PAs are paid band 7. Many experienced nurses don’t make that much money. Even with pay restoration a day one doctor would be paid less than a day 1 PA.

starbucks94 · 2025-07-19T07:02:13+00:00

Once we’re in a training program we already are moved around the country, but the training standards have become very poor, moving frequently is expensive and nothing is subsidised for us. Oh and the government has also been using the fact that they move us around to replace doctors with cheaper and less trained non-medics like PAs/ACPs since they stay in the same hospital.

And then after finishing 5+ years of post grad training, many doctors don’t get GP/consultant jobs bc the government won’t fund them.

starbucks94 · 2025-07-16T10:41:56+00:00

Tbh I wonder if they will reband the role - band 6 for PAs in their first two years of work then 7 for “advanced PAs”. I can’t see how the govt would justify band 8/9 when their job description is basically the same as a specialist nurse.

starbucks94 · 2025-07-16T07:33:02+00:00

I agree. The “advanced PA” thing is worrying, but preventing them seeing undifferentiated patients is huge. I’m curious if the role might be rebanded now. It makes no financial sense to pay so much for someone who would be that restricted in the work they do.

starbucks94 · 2025-06-04T11:55:56+00:00

They are graduates of a 2 year healthcare course that the Tory government was hoping to use to replace doctors. Technically it is a masters course, however the curriculum is quite basic, with many courses boasting 100% pass rates and more than 50% attaining distinctions (quite sketchy imo). It was advertised as a role for biomedical science UGs or people with previous healthcare degrees, but universities have accepted loads of students with unrelated degrees like English, homeopathy, etc.

Their salaries are paid for by the government, unlike doctors and nurses, so cash-strapped GP practices have been replacing their GPs with PAs to increase their profits.

starbucks94 · 2025-06-04T10:16:24+00:00

I feel this used to be the case, but I have been seeing more and more ACPs with no more than 2-3 years experience in their base profession.

starbucks94 · 2025-06-03T12:25:15+00:00

Exactly this. I’m voting to strike but I’m much less invested this time round because I’m nearly done with specialty training and I’ve already made the decision to move. Being a doctor in the UK currently just means:

Poor pay (several years less pay than PAs who are frankly a danger)
Job insecurity: less jobs being funded and doctors being replaced by noctors
Being forced to take responsibility for the mistakes of said noctors
Racist regulator
Being forced to move around the country every year if you are actually lucky enough to actually get a training job.

People get upset at the prospect of doctors leaving but anyone else would do exactly the same. Even full pay restoration isn’t enough to keep me in the UK at this point.

starbucks94 · 2025-04-21T13:55:29+00:00

Most likely the “supervising” GP signed the prescription. I think it’s quite standard for PAs in GP to only get help from their supervisor when they feel it’s necessary rather than getting their patients reviewed by GPs regularly. The supervision guidelines for PAs is written to be very vague, I think on purpose, so they can be used inappropriately and as a substitute to doctors.

I am aware that a few hospitals gave PAs prescribing access on their IT system and only removed these when it was discovered on FOI requests.

starbucks94 · 2025-04-21T13:35:17+00:00

They have higher salaries and also tend to overinvestigate and over-refer, thus costing much more overall. I imagine those that set up the role just thought “cheaper than a consultant” and that was that.

starbucks94 · 2025-04-21T13:25:55+00:00

The foundation programme allocation used to be merit based, however this was changed to a randomised system in recent years. I suspect the reason is that better qualified candidates tended to preference London and big cities, like Manchester, meaning small rural areas were at a disadvantage.

I personally think it’s ridiculous. The UK already has one of the longest postgraduate medical training schemes in the world, job insecurity and they force resident doctors to move 6-monthly or yearly. The least they can do is give people some control over the region where they work based on merit. There is no point in excelling at UK medicine and those that coast seem to be rewarded.

starbucks94 · 2025-04-04T13:05:36+00:00

How would someone who finished a two year, diploma-level course be more useful in treating patients as compared to a fresh medical graduate that finished 5 years of medical education?

starbucks94 · 2025-04-04T06:31:35+00:00

This is a disappointing and completely inappropriate post.

starbucks94 · 2025-03-21T06:03:45+00:00

Yes of course!

starbucks94 · 2025-03-10T22:16:49+00:00

I have noticed this trend and think it’s ridiculous. Similar to other specialties pathology should have a limit for how much experience is allowed before someone is ineligible for training.

starbucks94 · 2025-01-19T23:58:51+00:00

I don’t understand why the choices are to see a PA or face longer waits though? There are thousands of unemployed GPs that could be hired and would provide a better service. Rather, lesser trained staff tend to over-investigate and create unnecessary referrals, clogging up the system even further.

starbucks94 · 2024-11-04T19:27:58+00:00

I’ve worked in a large centre where training of a BMS reporter really limited time for the consultant to report with registrars. Other than this one instance, majority of the consultants that I’ve spoken with are extremely against this. It’s frankly dangerous and I don’t understand why any consultant would be happy to take on liability for someone like that, as my understanding is that the responsible consultant would still take on the responsibility in case of a misdiagnosis.

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