Anand Fernandes
I joined the Public Health training scheme in 2004 after qualifying in Medicine and having the seeds of public health work sown in me during a three year Masters in Community Medicine at St. Johns Medical College, Bangalore, India. The efforts of the Head of School, her team and the various trainers (i.e. jobbing consultants and directors) located around the Thames Valley region ensured that the public health seeds didn’t meet an untimely end and nurtured me towards a career in communicable disease control where I currently ply my trade.
Key attractions of training in public health in Oxford:
A year long MSc to help strengthen core knowledge (and meet like-minded individuals from different parts of the world with a variety of experiences) put me in a good position to get over the Faculty of Public Health membership exams.
The opportunities to work in a variety of NHS, academic and local government placements. Within Thames Valley you will get to work with different populations and deprivation groups while being close enough to London to explore training placements in the Department of Health or central agencies.
Close working with other specialty registrars during training days and the social events which don’t lag far behind. The importance of this is usually realised in the first few years as a ‘fresh’ consultant!