Other criteria

You will be required to declare any criminal convictions or issues in relation to your fitness to practise.

For propriety, such declarations need to include all convictions, regardless of whether or not they can be regarded as 'spent'; this includes driving offences, with the exception of fixed penalty notices and parking offences.

This will be assessed from your application, at interview, via your references, and will be checked prior to you taking up any employment offered.

The application form will contain a full page dedicated to nine fitness to practise issues.

Should you answer 'yes' to any of the nine corresponding questions, you will be required to give further details. This information should be supplied using the designated 'Fitness to Practise Declaration Form' by the application closing date. The form can be downloaded from the Medical Training Recruitment website and should be sent to the region managing your application using the fitness to practise email addresses (where one is supplied, use the normal queries contact information if not) given on the contacts page of this website. 

You must meet professional health requirements in line with GMC standards, as described in Good Medical Practice.

All you need to do during the recruitment process is to declare your understanding that employment will be subject to satisfactory medical clearance, and your awareness of GMC guidelines on fitness to practise. This will be done via within the declarations page of the application form.

The ST3 person specifications have an explicit requirement for all applicants to have gained an Advanced Life Support Certificate from the Resuscitation Council UK (or equivalent) by the advertised post start date.

Candidates applying whilst in CMT/ACCS-AM should meet this automatically, by virtue of it being a requirement for completion of CMT.

Those who have not undertaken UK core medical training, or whose ALS validation has elapsed, will need to ensure they have gained this or an equivalent certificate by the required deadline.

Which courses/certificates are regarded as equivalent to the UK Resuscitation Council ALS certificate?

The Resuscitation Council UK (RC [UK]) is keen to ensure strict quality control and standardisation of experience/skills gained in resuscitation training. As such, there are strict guidelines applied on which courses/certificates can be classed as equivalent to the RC(UK) certificate.

RC(UK) course certificates are recognised across Europe and are valid for four years (ILS/PILS are valid for one year).

The holder of any RC(UK) course certificate has achieved a standard defined by the RC(UK); the tight quality control applied to the course programmes, the teaching scenarios, the instructors and the assessment provides some assurance of this standard.

Since RC(UK) have no such information on, or control over, the standards of potential 'equivalent' courses, RC(UK) clearly cannot offer any similar guarantee concerning successful participants.

However; ALS certificates provided by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) (ERC website) or Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) (ARC website) are recognised by RC(UK), as these organisations use the same programme, teaching material and assessment process.

So in summary: ALS courses/certificates from only the UK, European and Australian Resuscitation Councils can be accepted as meeting the requirement for advanced life support training.

Life support courses/certifications which are not regarded as equivalent

There are a number of courses covering life support and resuscitation skills which have previously been submitted by applicants to demonstrate that they satisfy this eligibility requirement, but which are not accepted as alternatives to the above courses. Courses that have been submitted in past applications but which are not accepted as equivalents include, but are not limited to:

• ACLS (advanced cardiac life support)
• ATLS (advanced trauma life support)
• PALS (paediatric advanced life support)
• American Heart Association certifications

The only advanced life support courses which are accepted are those issued by UK, European or Australian Resuscitation Councils.

Providing information

You can provide information as follows:

On your application: you will be asked whether or not you have a valid ALS certificate on the application form and the date of completion.

At interview: your ALS certificate will not be checked at interview, but will be requested by your employer at a later date.