Selection process

We advise applicants to read all 2027 guidance documents carefully to ensure they are aware of all changes to the criteria that have been made.

One national application and single transferable score

The selection process allows applicants to demonstrate their abilities and suitability for ST4 Anaesthetics training - applications are assessed by the demonstration of competences outlined in the person specification.

For an Anaesthetics training post, an applicant makes one application for all participating NHS England Local Offices, Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland), Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA) and Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW).

At the time of application, applicants will be required to choose one 'cluster' they want to be considered for in respect of posts in England and Wales or Northern Ireland or Scotland.

Each cluster requires the applicant to attend an online interview, and they will need to book onto a preferred slot for that cluster. They will only be considered for appointment to posts in the cluster they apply to.

The method used in England and Wales is known as a Single Transferable Score (STS) as applicants are not restricted to only being offered a post in the area in which they attended an online interview. The system is designed to maximise the numbers of applicants and opportunities for successful appointment.

The Anaesthetics recruitment process is as follows:

1. A standard application and longlisting process
2. Longlisted applicants go through the self assessment process
3. Online interviews are conducted and applicants are invited based on achieving the required self assessment score and agreed interview slot capacity
4. Offers are made based on applicants' unique rank and preferences
5. Any available offers are recycled until there are no further eligible applicants*

*After recycling concludes, if there are posts available, a clearing round will be conducted. Applicants who have preferenced the England and Wales and Northern Ireland clusters will be able to rank posts outside of their initial cluster.

Dual programmes with Intensive Care Medicine (ICM)

Applicants who currently hold a National Training Number (NTN) in ICM and are applying to Anaesthetics, in the hope of securing a dual programme, can only undertake a dual programme if:

1. The offer of an Anaesthetics NTN is in the same region as the one where their partner specialty training is being undertaken. Please remember not all programmes span across all regions. (For example, NHS England working across South West is made up of two programme regions, Severn and Peninsula. In this example, an applicant cannot dual train across both regions and must rank their sub preferences accordingly)
2. The region is able to accommodate a dual training programme. For any queries relating to this, the applicant should speak with the Training Programme Director (TPD) of their training area.

If an applicant receives an offer for Anaesthetics and either of these conditions is not met, the applicant will need to decide whether to accept the Anaesthetics offer or not. If an applicant lists their preferences incorrectly and they accept an Anaesthetics post in a different region to where they currently hold an ICM NTN, then the applicant will be expected to resign their currently held NTN in order to take up their Anaesthetics training post.

ANRO reserves the right to withdraw an offer of training if an applicant has listed their preferences incorrectly and they wish to apply for Dual Training.

Applicants are only eligible for a dual Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) if they have not yet completed ST5 in their primary specialty by time of interview. ANRO will longlist out applicants who do not meet this criterion.

Please see information regarding recruitment into ST3 ICM and the specialty person specification here.

Simultaneous recruitment for Anaesthetics and ICM

You will now be able to accept 2 offers at the same time; an offer for Anaesthetics ST at the same time as ICM ST. The most important proviso is as follows – the 2 offers at the time of acceptance must be in the same region – this is non-negotiable.

The process of preferences and upgrades will still apply as in previous years. In the event of offers and ranking producing 2 offers in geographically separate areas (even if they are neighbouring regions) you would still need to choose 1 programme over another.

This is a stipulation of Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans (COPMeD) and has been a non-negotiable component of dual CCTs since 2012.