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General Surgery ST3 National Selection for 2026

Help shape our profession

03 October 2025 (Last updated 3 Oct 2025)

Dear Colleague

I am writing regarding General Surgery ST3 national selection for 2026.

The process of recruiting our consultant colleagues of the future cannot be delivered without your assistance and I hope as many of you as possible will join us. There are few more significant opportunities for us practicing consultants to shape our profession, and I really am immensely grateful to all of you who give up your valuable time in supporting the recruitment process.

General Surgery is the most applied to specialty at ST3 level. We are one of the few specialties fortunate to run a face-to-face shortlisting event and it is imperative this is preserved. 

To that end, we have listened to and incorporated panel member feedback from previous years, making some iterative changes which streamline the process and improve the quality of the experience for panel members.

Examples include:

  • Applicants will only submit their best closed-loop audit (rather than 3 audits in total). 
  • Routine audits such as VTE, operation note, or antibiotic prescribing audits will not be eligible. 
  • Each application will only be scored initially by one panel member, with a second check for critical “high stakes” decisions (e.g. applications found to be potentially ineligible). 
  • Panel members will be asked to give each application a global score for quality which contributes to the overall total. 

Recent years have brought an ~20% year-on-year increase in the number of applications received, which we anticipate will continue. It is therefore vital that we use all our shortlisting & interview capacity, and we need your help to deliver this.

Dates for this year have been set as Monday 26th & Tuesday 27th January 2026. We will be delighted to accommodate panellists who can attend for either one or both shortlisting days.

As with last year, expenses will be available to support those giving up their time for in-person shortlisting. Please note that the expense process will be updated for this round, and we will publish this information as soon as possible. So please do not book any travel or hotel accommodation at this stage.

Interviews for applicants successful in shortlisting will be held remotely (online) as in previous years. The interview dates for 2026 are Thursday 26th and Friday 27th March 2026. As with shortlisting, we will be delighted to accommodate panellists who can interview on just one or on both interview dates. There will be no reduction in capacity moving from 3 to 2 interview days, and the start-finish times will remain the same as usual. 


Please do consider bringing your professional experience, knowledge, and judgment and join us for the in-person shortlisting days on Monday 26th & Tuesday 27th January 2026 which will be held at the NHS England London Recruitment office at 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, and/or the online interviews from Thursday 26th & Friday 27th March 2026.

Please note that panel members must be current NHS Consultants who are on the specialist register for General Surgery, in good standing with their employer and hold in-date equality and diversity training at the time of the shortlisting meeting / Interviews.

Panel members are required to maintain ‘good standing’ with the GMC.  For our purposes, ‘not in good standing’ and ‘under investigation’ refers to either an interim order being issued and/or conditions or restrictions having been placed on practice by the GMC or employer and/or suspension from the workplace.  Any panel member in this unfortunate situation cannot participate and must let us know ASAP.

As always, we are extremely grateful for your continuing commitment and support given to the ST3 National Selection process.

General Surgery ST3 Portfolio Shortlisting Day (In Person event)
Mon 26th & Tues 27th January 2026

https://lasepgmdeevents.hee.nhs.uk/events/recruitment/f861ee2a-b4f1-4b83-9a06-28294cc95f0b

General Surgery ST3 Remote Interviews
Thurs 26th & Fri 27th March 2026

https://lasepgmdeevents.hee.nhs.uk/events/recruitment/f861ee2a-b4f1-4b83-9a06-28294cc95f0b

 

Nicholas Watson
Consultant Colorectal/General Surgeon
Vice Chair General Surgery Specialty Advisory Committee (SAC)
Association of Surgeons of Great Britain & Ireland Director of Education & Training 
Higher Surgical Training Programme Director NHS WTE-EM (North)
UK Clinical Lead for ST3 General Surgery National Recruitment

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