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  1. General internal medicine

    Doctors working in general internal medicine treat patients with a wide range of acute and long-term medical conditions. 

    Training usually starts with a five year first degree in medicine. Then there's two years foundation doctor training, two years core training (CT1-2), followed by three years specialists training (ST3-5). 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 will also need to be on call. The basic salary ranges from £29,384 to £34,012. Once you start your specialty training as a doctor in general internal medicine 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.
    There are approximately 891 consultants working in general internal medicine in the NHS in England. You could specialise in acute internal medicine, cardiology, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, renal medicine or respiratory medicine.
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