Do I need all 9s for medicine?

They account for the drop out rate when they recruit

Exactly, still my point stands they are fairly desperate for med students and nursing students. Not exactly sure why it seems you are picking an argument here.

because they are not desperate for medical students. there are far more candidates than places so where would the desperation come from?

They are increasing places in medical schools, because the need for them in the NHS is extreme. There is a desperation to not just recruit students but to retain them too.
Still not sure why you are picking at this, you can find several sources detailing this increase in need.

They are increasing medical places, sure, but they are not increasing training places for those students to go into once they graduate. Have a look at the competition ratios for various specialties - there is no shortage of doctors wanting to fill those places. The reason they are increasing places isn't desperation, it's to reduce the value of doctors.

It is desperation. Seriously not sure why you are still picking at this over one word, that has very little to do with whats being asked in this post.
The context of my original comment was to reassure the OP. If you are personally offended by the use of the word desperate, I apologise to you, but it was not directed towards you so i see no reason why you are carrying this on.

Because your choice of word and your understanding of the situation is incorrect. But yes, completely irrelevant to OP - their GCSE grades will not hold them back.

Its not incorrect, but you are getting offended by it. When there was no intention to cause offence. Thank you for acknowledging that your comments have been irrelevant to this post though.

Yeah I see your point and they shouldn’t really be picking on this one word but I do get their point too that med application process is still very fierce so they’ll never have trouble getting med students

Its not incorrect, but you are getting offended by it. When there was no intention to cause offence. Thank you for acknowledging that your comments have been irrelevant to this post though.

I struggle to see where you get the idea from that I'm offended. I just happen to know a little bit more about the topic than you do.

Because you keep picking, its hard to assume that you aren’t offended. It doesn’t feel like you particularly know any more or less than I do on this.

Don't I? I work in medical education.

No, no you don’t. This is getting ridiculous now, and petty. All this because you are unhappy with one word, it’s silly and completely takes away from the point of this post.

Have a look at my posting history lol

They are increasing places in medical schools, because the need for them in the NHS is extreme. There is a desperation to not just recruit students but to retain them too.
Still not sure why you are picking at this, you can find several sources detailing this increase in need.

The NHS does need more Drs.
There are currently 7500 med school places in England. The plan to increase them to 15000 has been put on hold.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/25/government-u-turn-on-plans-to-double-number-of-medical-students-in-england
There were 24,150 applicants for medicine for 2024 entry. They are not short of applicants and increasing applicants or med school places will not improve retention - that would involve an improvement in pay and T&Cs, I suspect.
Do you have figures for drop out rates from medicine, as most studies put the level as low?

What i was saying in my original comment got taken out of context and blown out the water.
Adding to that now doesn’t benefit the OP in anyway. I still stand by what I said in my original comment, it was there for the OPs benefit no one else’s as it was directed at helping settle their worries.
I apologise if anyone had an issue with my use of one word, but it’s really not this big of a deal

It is not your use of any particular word, just the premise that med schools are short of applicants - they are not. Though the NHS is short of Drs and retention is becoming a big issue