Residency in UK/Ireland

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drew23

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Hello everybody, I'm an italian student and i m going to attend my 5th year of medicine and i'd really like to get my residency in UK or Ireland but i have just a few information on that matter.
Of course i should take a certificate like IELTS with a 7.5 score. But i read something about PLAB, what would it be?And then which are the "burocratic" steps i should take?I mean what should i do?Should i contact the hospital about the specialty i like, and how?should i
contact a college?Please it would be really helpful for me and every european citizen to clear this information, burocracy is awful!!
thank you in advance

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I'm really interested in knowing this too! An answer could be very helpful to alot of people here.
 
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Out of curiosity: how competitive is a residency spot in IM in London?
 
There is no such thing as IM in the UK. You would apply for CMT - core medical training, after that you generally apply for specialty training so at that point would do purely cardio, gastro etc except when on call when you would cover all of medicine. Before any of that though you would do 2 foundation years. Both foundation and core years involve rotating through specialties, foundation includes surgical as well as medical specialties.

CMT is easy in terms of competitiveness. You rotate through sites though so even if you get a job technically in London you will end up way outside of it for a huge amount of time. The trouble comes after CMT when you apply for registrar posts, then it gets competitive.
 
What about family medicine in London?
 
Same thing goes in that London doesn't really mean London most of the time.

General practice is basically the easiest specialty to get into. How high you are ranked will depend on how well you do on the exam and that will determine where you end up.
 
If you go through all this then potentially you may begin in the Foundation Programme if you win a place somewhere in the country (very likely). You rotate through around 6 specialties over 2 years. It is difficult to control which region, which hospital and which specialties one rotates in. The London area is super-competitive because there are many medical students graduating there but much less vacancy spots (called an exporting deanery), and I'm sure many people used to London would find it difficult to go to quieter areas of the country :) (no generalisation intended). Also, if you get into London for the most part you do one year in London and one year out of London. Sometimes even two years out of London, so nothing is guaranteed.

There are more UK graduates than there are foundation jobs. Given the way the scoring system works for foundation, if your English isn't absolutely perfect your chances of getting a job are slim.

London isn't always "super competitive", the year I applied, one of the London deaneries had one of the lowest if not the lowest cutoff score in the UK. It varies hugely each year. Generally the score needed for London is higher but if one deanery has a really high cutoff one year people freak out, don't apply the next year, and the score drops.
 
To be honest, I don't think you're familiar with the Foundation Programme application process. Please note that last year there was a change, and this year there was a complete overhaul. So refrain from posting information that is outdated. Any anecdotes prior to that are irrelevant, and I say this in the most respectful manner.

What you say about that London deanery anomaly was true, but that was only one instance and from last year the applicant/vacancy ratios went through the roof for the London deaneries. This year will be no less because of the changes to the system.

Also, English fluency does not factor into the application. All you need is a medical degree taught in English or pass one of the international English exams. After that nobody will ever check if your English is good enough and cannot be discriminated against (assuming you are a EU citizen from a EU med school).

Regarding jobs and vacancies: this year it is expected that around 400 applicants will not find a job (from 7000 something vacancies)! Even if one ends up on the reserve list, there are always people who fail from graduating or withdraw before the start of the programme, so those ending without a post will be less. In fact, not ending with a job is uncommon. Last year all 81 on the reserve list found a job.

A medical student telling a doctor who has actually been through the process that they don't know how it works? Yeah that's pretty hilarious.

All UK students do end up getting a job eventually, or at least they have the last few years, that doesn't mean that everyone from the EU gets a job. They are usually much further down the reserve list as they tend to have lower scores.

Of course your ability to speak the language matters!!!! Half the points are based on your ability to answer questions with a lot of parts and very low word limit. If you can't speak the language perfectly you will massively struggle with this aspect of the application and will not score well.
 
Please stop embarrassing yourself. You absolutely have no idea how the system works. It has been changed. Why do I need to repeat myself?!

Do not believe that EU applicants will have lower scores. There is no validity to that statement. That may have been true 1 year ago, but not now.

I would suggest anyone intending to apply to the Foundation Programme to read the Foundation Programme Applicant's Handbook. This would easily answer most of the questions and maybe stop bambi from misinforming people (I'm sure it's out of ignorance and not intentional).

Unless your language skills are perfect you will struggle on the questions section of the application. For a lot of EU applicants English will not be their first language so they will struggle and are likely to score lower because of this, not all will score lower but a lot will. That is not a difficult concept to understand. Until you have done the questions and had them marked you can't really comment. Even if there have been some changes as long as there are questions like that in the process those who don't speak perfect English will be at a disadvantage.
 
Fair enough, happy to admit when I am wrong.

A note for you - when working as a doctor, clarity is incredibly important, if you aren't clear you can kill people. Instead of making rude comments and passing out insults why not just say the white space questions have gone? Just saying it has changed is not the same thing. That's like presenting a patient and being asked for a differential/diagnosis and just saying the patient is sick!
 
WOW!!!

You are going to have a lot of problems with that attitude!
 
Thank you for your answers.
I have a doubt: if i'd like to apply to FP 2013(for example even if it's too late) i should have been eligible within august 2012 and that means that i should have had my medical degree one year before applying to FP?is it correct?
 
You could already have graduated, but this not required. In fact more than 99% of applicants would be going onto their final year of medical school while applying. The important thing is that you finish medical school (not necessarily graduate) by the time the Foundation Programme starts in 2013.

Hope that answered your question :)

I'm not sure i understood everything....i(hope)'m gonna graduate on july 2014...so if i want to apply to FP 2014 i don't need to be graduated yet, but do i need already the IELTS certificate?the procedure to apply in which consist?which documents do i need?The test on december, what is it precisely?
i'm sorry if i keep bothering you but i need to know everything exactly in order to avoid doing any mistakes.
thank you for your answers
 
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