We’re celebrating SAS Week (Monday 14 to Friday 18 October), recognising the contribution of our specialty, associate specialist and specialist grade doctors.

We were the second trust in the country to sign up to the #SASsix pledge, which consists of six policy changes to support SAS doctors with their career development, including access to an educational supervisor and more opportunities in leadership and management.

SAS doctors are experienced doctors with a wide range of skills. It’s an alternative career path to becoming a consultant or GP and can offer more flexibility outside the rigidity of a formal training programme.

Flexibility was one of the reasons becoming an SAS doctor appealed to Anushka Aubeelack (above), who is a specialist in anaesthetics at our Trust.

She said:

I work independently and autonomously at a senior level. It’s lovely to be recognised with a senior grade and have an improved work/life balance. Becoming a SAS doctor gave me more regular hours, based at the same trust, without the need to rotate across various hospitals to complete my training. It made everything more stable which really appealed to me, and I’ve been really supported in my department.

People often suggest I continue my training to become a consultant but there is no appeal for me to go back to it. It’s not the case for everyone, some people use the SAS path as a stepping stone.

Anushka is a champion for SAS doctors across our Trust and is a great example of the opportunities we offer; she became Associate Medical Director for Deteriorating and Critically Ill Patients in 2022:

Backing the #SASsix pledge is a really positive move for our Trust. Some of them are obvious, which show, nationally, SAS doctors have been a bit overlooked. Every doctor should have an educational supervisor, and structured continuing professional development. For those of us who are more senior, we should have an opportunity to pass on our knowledge as an educator.

In some areas, the SAS workforce is underutilised. There are so many talented, experienced, SAS doctors who cannot access opportunities to use their education or leadership skills. We’re lucky there are opportunities at our Trust, it needs to be uniform across all our departments. It’s great news more trusts are signing up, especially during SAS Week.

Our Chief Medical Officer, Mamta Shetty Vaidya, said:

Our Trust is home to more than 520 SAS and locally employed doctors. We want to ensure they all have excellent professional development opportunities.

Many of the pledges are already being implemented in departments across our clinical groups and we’re looking forward to opening up more opportunities for staff across our hospitals.

During SAS Week, we’ll be hosting a conference as well as a series of webinars with SAS doctors sharing their inspiring career paths. There will also be opportunities to have lunch together and network with our senior leadership team.

The #SASsix are:

1. Every early career SAS doctor should have access to an educational supervisor.
2. All SAS doctors should have equity of access to professional development opportunities relevant to their stage of career.
3. All specialty doctors who meet the required capabilities should have the opportunity to become specialists.
4. Senior SAS doctors should be offered the opportunity to be educators at every level on a par with consultants, e.g., educational supervisors, clinical supervisors, directors of medical education.
5. All extended roles in leadership and management should be open to all substantive medical staff, i.e., consultants and appropriately experienced SAS doctors.
6. All locally employed doctors employed for more than two years within one trust should be offered the opportunity to transfer to the appropriate SAS contract.