Defence medical services
What they do
The Defence Medical Services (DMS) employ military and civilian
doctors in many different specialist roles. The DMS primary mission
is to deliver medical support to Armed Forces personnel wherever in
the world they are serving. As such, you are likely to find that
the DMS can be an extremely rewarding and satisfying experience. In
addition to basic pay, selected doctors may receive general
practitioner trainer pay or excellence awards. Joining the DMS need
not be a long-term commitment. Many doctors consider a short
military commission with the DMS to be a valuable and rewarding
experience in their careers, moving on to NHS or private practice;
the experience gained within the DMS giving excellent advantage in
pursuing longer term professional goals.
Personal qualities and strengths
Applicants are considered at any stage of their professional
career; undergraduate, through specialist trainee to fully
accredited specialists or general practitioners. Pay and rank take
full account of all of your civilian experience and, if accredited,
applicants may be considered up to the day before their 55th
birthday. For those that wish to be considered for specialty
training within the DMS, the upper age limit is the day before your
46th birthday.
In preparation
If you join the DMS as a military doctor, you will join one of
the three armed services< ; the Royal Navy, the British Army or
the Royal Air Force. Each of the services has their own
interview and recruitment processes and more information on this is
available from an Armed Forces Careers Office or by visiting one of
the Armed Forces' web sites (see below).
Outlook for the future
Going forward, the DMS needs wide range of skills within primary
and secondary care roles, including general practice, occupational
physicians, aviation medicine, diving medicine, radiation medicine,
public health, psychiatry, anaesthetics, emergency medicine,
dermatology, genito-urinary medicine, general physicians,
neurology, pathology haematology, microbiology, rehabilitation
medicine, radiology, general surgery, burns and plastics, ORL,
ophthalmology, orthopaedics, maxillofacial, gynaecology and
neurosurgery.
Further information
BMJ careers has a recent article (Jan 2010) on
The Military Doctor
The information provided is correct as of 1 Jul 2007.
Latest policy can be found on application to one of the Armed
Services.