In a blog to celebrate SAS Week 2025, Dr Heather Sullivan, a specialty doctor working in Merseyside, and a finalist in the 2025 RCP Excellence in Patient Care Awards, writes about her career journey and why becoming an SAS doctor is her career of choice.
I currently work as a specialty doctor in a successful, friendly and supportive diabetes centre in Merseyside. My journey to this role has been full of exploration, learning and ultimately, finding a career path that feels like home.
After qualifying from Liverpool Medical School in 2012, I completed my foundation years and core medical training (CMT) across Merseyside. Like many resident doctors, I enjoyed almost every specialty I rotated through, and by the end of CMT I was still undecided on which training specialty route to take.
To help me decide, I chose to explore care of the elderly as an SAS doctor, allowing me to experience a more senior role without the commitment of a full training programme. I enjoyed the specialty focused nature of the post off the general medical rota, with the flexibility of choosing if and when to undertake general medical on-call work. But although I valued the breadth of patient care, I knew the specialty wasn’t quite the right fit for me.
Towards the end of my year as a SAS doctor in care of the elderly, I was approached by the diabetes and endocrinology department, whom I had worked with during my CMT years, offering me a senior clinical fellow post. I jumped at the opportunity, and it didn’t take long before I realised that I had found my niche.
‘This role has allowed me to immerse myself in the specialty, developing my knowledge and experience in depth’
Without regular on-call commitments, I have had the space to focus, achieving my specialty certificate examination (SEC) in diabetes and endocrinology within 18 months, and going on to become recognised as a more senior member of the team, with promotion to specialty doctor and plans to become a specialist doctor in the near future.
As the sole SAS doctor – and initially the only female doctor – in the department, I’ve been able to shape a unique role for myself. To act as a bridge between consultants and the wider multidisciplinary team: contributing to departmental decision making while also being an approachable figure to offer pastoral and educational support to the wider MDT. The permanence of my role has meant I’ve been able to lead on large and longitudinal service improvement projects where I’ve been able to bring in skills from outside medicine – graphics, design and IT – to add real value to our work.
When I first started, my plan was to pursue the certificate of eligibility for specialist registration (CESR). Over time, however, I came to realise that the role of an SAS doctor suited me perfectly. It has given me the professional challenge and variety I wanted, while also allowing me to grow personally and bring my wider interests into my day-to-day work. The autonomy that the role has provided me over my own development has been something I have thrived off.
‘It has enabled me to really develop my own professional identity, while also allowing for a wonderful work life balance, enabling me to also spend quality time with the young family I have had while in this post’
My ambition now is to develop my leadership skills to advocate for other SAS colleagues across the trust – through appraisal, mentorship and projects such as SAS Week. I strongly believe that being an SAS doctor is most certainly not a ‘fallback option’ but can be a wonderful opportunity for enthusiastic and driven doctors to peruse careers within specialities of their choice via their own paths.
‘SAS doctors can – and do – make some of the biggest differences to patient care. It and is a role to be truly proud of’
As SAS doctors, we bring with us wealth of diverse experiences, skills and perspectives, which are precisely what make us so valuable as doctors within our teams and to the NHS as a whole.
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- A patient-centred transformation, Future Healthcare Journal, Vol 12, Issue 2, Supplement, June 2025
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Dr Heather Sullivan
Specialty doctor working in Merseyside
