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  1. Paediatric cardiology

    Paediatric cardiologists diagnose and treat children with heart conditions before they are born, through childhood and into adulthood.

    Training usually starts with a five year degree in medicine MBBS, and then two years of foundation training. Following that, you’ll complete three years of core paediatric training (CPT1-3) or core medical training (CMT1-3), then five years of specialty training (ST4-8). This period of training will include your royal college exams. Length of training can vary according to your circumstances.
    Doctors may work up to 48 hours a week. The working hours may sometimes extend beyond the normal working day to include early mornings, evenings and weekends. You’ll first earn a salary when you start your foundation training after medical school. The basic salary ranges from £29,384 to £34,012. Once you start your specialty training as a paediatric cardiologist employed by the NHS, you can expect to earn a salary of at least £40,257, which can increase to between £84,559 and £114,003 as a consultant.
    You'll need excellent communication skills to manage a wide range of relationships with colleagues, and patients and their families. You'll be emotionally resilient, have excellent problem-solving and diagnostic skills and work well in teams and under pressure. You'll also be very organised for the benefit of patients.
    In 2021, there were 135 paediatric cardiology consultants working in the NHS in England. In addition, there were 35 applications for six specialty training places. You could specialise or conduct research in areas such as foetal cardiology and adult congenital heart disease or teach medical students or postgraduate students in training.  
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