Med school in US or UK

[Jonnyss]

Hi,
I intend to study medicine and become a doctor in either the UK or US. I'm not a citizen of either of them so I will be an international student either way. Also the financial cost of university fees and living expenses is not an issue at all.

The main thing I'm concerned about is how long it takes to become a doctor in the UK (including med school, post-graduate training) compared to the US (including college, med school, residency), in years approximately?

If you could give examples of a specific physician such as a cardiologist, dermatologist, anaesthologist or any other's stages in years to becoming a licensed doctor who can work, it would be great.

As I have to choose between going to undergraduate and medical school in the USA or going directly to medical school in the UK, I always used to think the UK would take a few years less. However I'm coming to realise that post-graduate training takes much longer than US residencies, which levels off the shorter length of medical school.

So i mainly want to know about UK post graduate training (how long it takes and how it compares to US residencies), as I'm fairly familiar with US residencies.

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[bambi]

Pick which country you want to work in and go to medical school there.
If you have absolutely no idea where you want to work a UK medical school would be better, it opens up the whole EU and makes places like Australia easier too.

Just a brief bit of info about working in the UK vs the US - in the UK it will take you at least twice as long to be fully trained in most specialties and you will earn maybe 10-20% of what you could in the US. Cost of living (on average) is higher in the UK so standard of living will be lower.

UK training (after med school)-
General practice - 5 years
Most surgical specialties - 9-10 years without fellowship
Most medical specialties - 8-10 years without fellowship

 

[Medstart108]

UK doctors make more than 10-20% of what US doctors make. I would say for GP its almost the same with the UK earning slightly less. For specialists yeah UK specialists often make between 50-80% of what a US specialist would make. A UK consultant working in the NHS would probably make 140-180k US dollars before overtime and on top of that there are bonuses. A US specialist would make between 200-800k with most specialists earning closer to 200k.

Bambi did you include Foundation years into the calculation, if not then there are 2 years of foundation on top of those numbers.

 

[bambi]

UK doctors make more than 10-20% of what US doctors make. I would say for GP its almost the same with the UK earning slightly less. For specialists yeah UK specialists often make between 50-80% of what a US specialist would make. A UK consultant working in the NHS would probably make 140-180k US dollars before overtime and on top of that there are bonuses. A US specialist would make between 200-800k with most specialists earning closer to 200k.

Bambi did you include Foundation years into the calculation, if not then there are 2 years of foundation on top of those numbers.

Included foundation years. I think there are plans for GP to be another 2 years on top of what I put though.

As for the money, it varies in the US a lot, in the UK it doesn't really, it goes up a bit each year but it would be rare for a UK doctor to make anything like 80% of what a US doctor does in most specialties, surgical at least. A first year consultant makes between $120-130K and will pretty much never get above $200K in the NHS in any specialty, lots will do private work but only one day a week so it doesn't come close to a lot of US salaries.

 

[Jonnyss]

Pick which country you want to work in and go to medical school there.
If you have absolutely no idea where you want to work a UK medical school would be better, it opens up the whole EU and makes places like Australia easier too.

Just a brief bit of info about working in the UK vs the US - in the UK it will take you at least twice as long to be fully trained in most specialties and you will earn maybe 10-20% of what you could in the US. Cost of living (on average) is higher in the UK so standard of living will be lower.

UK training (after med school)-
General practice - 5 years
Most surgical specialties - 9-10 years without fellowship
Most medical specialties - 8-10 years without fellowship

Thanks this was really good info.
Could you also tell me how it is for internationals (non-eu citizens) to get into training programs after med school in the uk? I read some of your very helpful posts on older threads that said it was frankly impossible to get into specialty training programs after foundation training, is this still the case as that thread was from a few years ago? I heard it has changed.

 

[bambi]

Thanks this was really good info.
Could you also tell me how it is for internationals (non-eu citizens) to get into training programs after med school in the uk? I read some of your very helpful posts on older threads that said it was frankly impossible to get into specialty training programs after foundation training, is this still the case as that thread was from a few years ago? I heard it has changed.

I'm not 100% sure anymore but I imagine it would still be next to impossible at least for specialties that always fill, things like psychiatry don't so maybe that would be an option.

 

[Medstart108]

Thanks this was really good info.
Could you also tell me how it is for internationals (non-eu citizens) to get into training programs after med school in the uk? I read some of your very helpful posts on older threads that said it was frankly impossible to get into specialty training programs after foundation training, is this still the case as that thread was from a few years ago? I heard it has changed.

You can get into specialty training programs after foundation training if you graduated from a uk medical school. There is no barrier. International citizens who do med school and foundation in the UK have equal rights as EU citizens. http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explor.../education-and-training-routes-(tier-1-to-5)/

 

[deleted158872]

UK training (after med school)-
General practice - 5 years
Most surgical specialties - 9-10 years without fellowship
Most medical specialties - 8-10 years without fellowship

Wow, the training is so long
I assume student-doctors get paid from Foundation year forward?

 

[Medstart108]

Wow, the training is so long
I assume student-doctors get paid from Foundation year forward?

Yes they do