Selection process

We advise applicants to read all 2027 Intensive Care Medicine guidance on this website carefully, to ensure they are aware of all changes to the criteria that have been made.

Simultaneous recruitment for Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) and its partner specialties

Applicants can now apply for ICM ST at the same time as applying for specialty training in any of its GMC-approved partner specialties. See a list of the GMC-approved partner specialties for dual and triple ICM CCT programmes.

Simultaneous recruitment information

From the time of the GMC approval of ICM training as a standalone Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), there have been challenges in applying to its partner specialties – applicants have only been able to accept one training programme at a time, leading to hard decisions about which programme to take on first.

Discussions between the College of Intensive Care Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine National Recruitment Office (ICMNRO) and the Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection Programme subgroups have led to this change – you can apply to and accept offers for both ICM and the relevant partner specialty during the same application window. We hope that this helps those wishing to train in the Dual or Triple ICM CCT programmes.

Applications continue to be made through the Oriel system and offers will be issued in the same way as normal.

The most important provision is as follows – the 2 offers at the time of acceptance must be in the same region – this is non-negotiable.

Where a region specifies sub-regions, you must make sure that any other offer in your simultaneous specialty is in the same sub-region.

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 one 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.

Interviews will still occur on separate dates due to differing schedules, and ICM will still only recruit for Specialty Training once per year.

As with all other programmes, holding one or more offers with a view to upgrade will still be possible up to the point of the upgrade deadline – if the two posts are still in separate regions at this point, then one of the posts will have to be declined.

Further information on this can be found on the Preferencing page and Offers page of the website.

One national application and single transferable score

The selection process allows applicants to demonstrate their abilities and suitability for ST3 ICM Training - applications are assessed by the demonstration of competences as outlined in the ICM ST3 Person specification. 

Recruitment to Higher Training (ST3) posts will take place once a year, for August commencement.

For an ICM training post, an applicant makes one application to 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).

Applicants will be considered for appointment across the whole of the UK (based on their performance and rank). This method is known as Single Transferable Score (STS) as applicants are not restricted to being considered for appointment in a single specific region. The STS system is designed to maximise opportunities for successful appointment.

If applicants have any queries regarding the recruitment process, they should contact the ICMNRO using the Freshdesk support portal.

All applications for ST3 must be made via the Oriel portal.

The Intensive Care Medicine 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 self assessment score and agreed interview 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*

*Offers date can be subject to change – applicants will be informed of any change via email direct from Oriel and a message will be posted on the ICMNRO website.

Dual Programmes with Intensive Care Medicine (ICM)

Applicants who currently hold a National Training Number (NTN) in one of ICM’s 5 partner specialties, namely Acute Internal Medicine, Anaesthetics, Emergency Medicine, Renal Medicine, or Respiratory Medicine, and are applying to ICM in the hope of securing a Dual Programme will be asked to put this information on their application form.

ICMNRO expect any Dual Programme applicants to ensure they only rank their current NTN region in their list of preferences as dual training can only be undertaken in the same region.

If an applicant lists their preferences incorrectly and they accept an ICM post in a different region to where they currently hold an NTN, then the applicant will be expected to resign their currently held NTN in order to take up their ICM training post.

ICMNRO 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 will only be eligible to a dual Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) if they have not yet completed ST5 in their primary specialty by time of first online interview window date stated on the timeline.

ICMNRO will longlist out applicants who do not meet this criterion.

If an applicant informs the ICMNRO of their wish to dual train on their application form but later retracts their request, they must inform the ICMNRO immediately so any restrictions can be removed.

Applicants are reminded that they can only undertake a Dual Programme if:

1. The offer of an ICM NTN is in the same region/sub-region (where applicable) 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 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

Triple Certificate of Completion of Training (CCTs) for Physician specialties

Acute Internal Medicine, Renal Medicine and Respiratory Medicine have General Internal Medicine (GIM) incorporated into their curricula and therefore are Dual CCT Programmes by default.

Please note that whilst physician trainees also appointed to ICM training will be undertaking Triple CCT programmes, applicants still only need to apply for an ICM post and either an Acute Internal, Renal or Respiratory Medicine post to apply for the Triple CCT Programme.

You do not have to apply for 3 posts, as the GIM CCT is packaged into the other physician CCT programme. Applicants should note however, that Triple CCT programmes can take longer to complete than Dual CCTs.

Equivalence for Core Programmes

It is an essential eligibility requirement that applicants hold the appropriate level of core competences in their core route to be able to apply.

As Intensive Care Medicine does not have its own core training programme, it instead accepts trainees from:

• Acute Core Common Stem (Internal Medicine, Anaesthetics and Emergency Medicine) (ACCS)
• Core Anaesthetic Training (CAT)
• Internal Medicine Training (IMT)

Further information on equivalence for Core Programmes can be found on the College of Intensive Care Medicine website.

The Longlisting section of the website also provides more information under Assessment of Core Competences.