• Question: how long does it take to become a specialist doctor

    Asked by 338epdj26 to Kevin, Liz, Beccy, Rosie on 20 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Jun 2017:

      Not sure – I am a biostatistician and epidemiologist – and I was trained in the US where medicine is always a graduate degree. Over to my medical colleagues…

    • Photo: Rosie Fok

      Rosie Fok answered on 20 Jun 2017:

      I graduated from medical school in 2003 and completed my specialist training in 2016.

      The quickest that you can become an infectious diseases specialist now is 10 years after graduating:

      5 years at medical school
      2 years as a Foundation doctor
      3 years as a core medical trainee (doing general medicine in the hospital)
      2 years as a core infection trainee
      3 years as a higher infection trainee

    • Photo: Liz Buckingham-Jeffery

      Liz Buckingham-Jeffery answered on 21 Jun 2017:

      Wow Rosie, that is such a long time!

      I’m doing a PhD, which is a research qualification that in the UK takes between 3 and 4 years to finish. At the end, I will get the title Dr! But it is a different kind of Dr to a medical doctor, who confusingly also has the title Dr!

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