Exeter medical school applicants 2015!

I had an interview in December, and got rejected on the 23rd of January, but my UCAS track hasn't updated even though it was nearly a month ago!! Is this normal?

Reply 1841

Dr Gin

12

Original post by Jaska

The reason why there is a lack of doctors is because if more doctors are produced, average wages decrease to a point where people will not be attracted to the hard working profession. I know money shouldn't really be a factor but in reality it is. Furthermore the limited spaces for medicine means we only produce the best doctors possible instead of allowing a bunch of incompetent elitists to join the vocation.

The restructuring of Medical Post Graduate training a few years ago lead to them calculating the number of posts available almost exactly. They now train just enough doctors to fill those (if you went through 5 years of training and then got told there was no job for you you'd be a bit upset I suppose - although this can actually still happen).
The reason we don't have enough doctors at the moment is due to 2 things mainly: people training in medicine but then never properly working as doctors (they drift off into all sorts of more lucrative things or do research etc.) and people retiring very early (recently loads of GPs have hung up their stethoscopes before the age of 50).
The government keep the numbers fixed to avoid having loads of unemployed doctors floating about as each one costs them £250,000-ish to train so they need to keep things cost-effective.

Reply 1842

Mutleybm1996

19

Original post by Dr Gin

The restructuring of Medical Post Graduate training a few years ago lead to them calculating the number of posts available almost exactly. They now train just enough doctors to fill those (if you went through 5 years of training and then got told there was no job for you you'd be a bit upset I suppose - although this can actually still happen).
The reason we don't have enough doctors at the moment is due to 2 things mainly: people training in medicine but then never properly working as doctors (they drift off into all sorts of more lucrative things or do research etc.) and people retiring very early (recently loads of GPs have hung up their stethoscopes before the age of 50).
The government keep the numbers fixed to avoid having loads of unemployed doctors floating about as each one costs them £250,000-ish to train so they need to keep things cost-effective.

Why did they retire <50?

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Reply 1843

username1155480

13

Original post by Mutleybm1996

Why did they retire <50?

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Cause they can xD

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Reply 1844

Dr Gin

12

Original post by Mutleybm1996

Why did they retire <50?

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Each case is different but there are some common things:

Other career options that are either more lucrative or fulfilling.
Burnout from the extreme (and increasing) workload.
Frustrations with constant government changes/restructuring.
They could afford to (lots of docs are married to docs/other professionals).
They have home/childcare commitments that are becoming incompatible with the job.
They know that they can 'retrain' back into work if they wish to later and that their skills and experience are still very valuable.
Dissatisfaction at the two-tier GP career system: GP principals 'owning' the business whilst salaried GPs are employed on lower money and status (they both do the same clinical stuff but salaried docs don't get involved in management decision-making/recruitment/business development etc.).

Interestingly one of the bigger influences recently has been revalidation. The process is cumbersome and stressful. Doctors are considered guilty unless they prove that they are innocent (i.e. up-to-date, competent etc.) with vast amounts of paperwork/attendance at educational events/certificates, colleague and patient satisfaction surveys etc. The time involved for GPs is daunting and it is the same whether you are full or part time (remember this is on top of working every hour god sends just to manage your clinical workload, run the practice and get home before the kids have fallen asleep). Even some much-loved and highly respected GPs have found the process overwhelming (or perhaps even a bit insulting when they feel that they already work so hard) so for some, particularly those who were working part-time, it was the straw that finally broke the camel's back and they decided to quit instead of revalidating (first wave of revalidation was a couple of years ago and it is a 5-yearly process on top of the usual annual appraisal process).

Reply 1845

*mimi*

Original post by Jaska

The reason why there is a lack of doctors is because if more doctors are produced, average wages decrease to a point where people will not be attracted to the hard working profession. I know money shouldn't really be a factor but in reality it is. Furthermore the limited spaces for medicine means we only produce the best doctors possible instead of allowing a bunch of incompetent elitists to join the vocation.

Having limited places for doctors to train in the UK also means that the country has to employ around 80,000 doctors from overseas. I wonder whether these doctors have to jump through quite as many hoops to get into medical school as is the case in the UK. Without wishing to sound racist, I think the goal should be to have more UK medical school places and less reliance on overseas staff.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1846

Lex97

Original post by MollyMcFly1

Yep!!

See you there 😊

Reply 1847

MollyMcFly1

13

Original post by Lex97

See you there 😊

Really excited! Will be nice to hopefully see some of the people from my interview day again as well :biggrin:

Reply 1848

Dr. Django

12

Original post by MollyMcFly1

Really excited! Will be nice to hopefully see some of the people from my interview day again as well :biggrin:

Hey, I really wanna go to this visit day and I was just wondering if the invite to this came in the email from general admissions (which I have received), or from the med school specifically? It's only been a day so I'm not concerned or anything, just hoping I'll still get the invite despite being a late offer!

Reply 1849

MollyMcFly1

13

Original post by Dr. Django

Hey, I really wanna go to this visit day and I was just wondering if the invite to this came in the email from general admissions (which I have received), or from the med school specifically? It's only been a day so I'm not concerned or anything, just hoping I'll still get the invite despite being a late offer!

Hey, if you haven't already tried just go to this link https://www.exeter.ac.uk/visitdays/ and log in with your UCAS and date of birth, and it should allow you to book. If it doesn't work it will just be because the system hasn't updated itself with your offer yet, but it will soon! Think it took 5 days after my offer :smile:

Reply 1850

Dr. Django

12

Original post by MollyMcFly1

Hey, if you haven't already tried just go to this link https://www.exeter.ac.uk/visitdays/ and log in with your UCAS and date of birth, and it should allow you to book. If it doesn't work it will just be because the system hasn't updated itself with your offer yet, but it will soon! Think it took 5 days after my offer :smile:

Ah it worked! Thanks so much :smile:

Unfortunately I think it's all booked up, to be honest I'm 99% sure I'll be firming Exeter anyway so it's no biggie

Reply 1851

MollyMcFly1

13

Original post by Dr. Django

Ah it worked! Thanks so much :smile:

Unfortunately I think it's all booked up, to be honest I'm 99% sure I'll be firming Exeter anyway so it's no biggie

Aw no that's annoying! I guess it's not a huge deal if it wasn't going to sway your decision. I'm definitely going to firm them so only going again to see a bit of Exeter really as we're going down for 2 days this time and I've not had a chance to see the city itself yet. Plus I enjoy playing with the clinical skills stuff, and I need to stock up on the amazing shortbread in the cafe in case I miss my grades and never go back :wink:

Reply 1852

*mimi*

Got an offer from Edinburgh tonight!! I wasn't expecting to be in the position of choosing between unis having 4 rejections last year.

Reply 1853

Sugarpuffx

9

Original post by *mimi*

Got an offer from Edinburgh tonight!! I wasn't expecting to be in the position of choosing between unis having 4 rejections last year.

Congrats!! :biggrin:

You definitely deserve it :smile:

Reply 1854

Dr Gin

12

Original post by *mimi*

Got an offer from Edinburgh tonight!! I wasn't expecting to be in the position of choosing between unis having 4 rejections last year.

Well done; just a little bit of geography between your two offers then..! :smile:

Reply 1855

Wackyboi123

1

Original post by Sugarpuffx

Congrats!! :biggrin:

You definitely deserve it :smile:

Well done, quite a distance but excellent result.
Have you heard back from Exeter yet?

Reply 1856

ilovescience123

Did anyone else get an email about an aspirational scholarship if you firm exeter and get AAA? Couldn't quite believe my eyes

Reply 1857

Matriix

8

Original post by ilovescience123

Did anyone else get an email about an aspirational scholarship if you firm exeter and get AAA? Couldn't quite believe my eyes

Yes! Me too! :tongue:

Reply 1858

*mimi*

Original post by Wackyboi123

Well done, quite a distance but excellent result.
Have you heard back from Exeter yet?

Original post by Dr Gin

Well done; just a little bit of geography between your two offers then..! :smile:

Thanks for the comments!
I've got offers from Exeter and Edinburgh now and I'm still waiting to hear back from Cardiff and Barts post interview.
Edinburgh looks amazing, but it's 300 miles away. Exeter is only half that distance plus I have family in Devon. I think I'll have to go to both post offer open days and then make the decision.