Just gonna chime in to say there is a girl in my year who commuted from London to Birmingham every day for the first 3 years of uni. Some people don't have a problem with crazy commutes, and that's okay. And wanting to save money on rent for 5 years makes plenty of sense. It may not work out to be possible for you, but there's no reason you shouldn't try if that's what you want to do.
As everyone has said, you now have to take some kind of entrance exam for medicine. What these are like is easily googleable