Financing medicine and the military

Why are you trying so hard to fund your degree? You don't want to take the student loan?

I'm just worried I won't get another maintenance loan so I'm coming up with an alternative plan. Tbh, I don't even know if I'd like being in the armed forces. I might join the University Officer Training Corps next semester to try it out.

A little about myself; I'm a future medical student working on a finance plan for the 5 year degree. I'm currently studying comp sci. I'll be leaving university with £14,000 saved from my scholarship. My plan to earn the extra £23,000 so far is to work for 3 years postgraduation as a software engineer to save up tuition fees.

I'll be able to fund the tuition fees but I'm a bit bazzled about living costs. People here have said you might be able to get another maintenance loan but there's no guarantee. However, I read on the GMC website that the British Army offers a £10,000 scholarship per year if you enlist for 6-8 years as an army medic. They also pay you more in the foundation years but I'd assume you'd do them at a military hospital.

Does anyone here have any experiences of being an army medic? Do you work in military hospitals or do you work on the front line/warzones? Are army medics in any real danger?

We don't have any military hospitals anymore, so you'll probably do your foundation years at a hospital with a MDHU.

I would imagine bursarships/cadetships are pretty competitive so I wouldn't rely on them to finance a 5 year degree.

Just be aware that you'll have to do a couple of years as a GDMO after your foundation years, so you'll be 2-3 years behind people you graduate with. You probably won't be regularly going on patrols with the infantry but you might be in a medical regiment that would operate in a war zone.

So are MDHUs wards in normal hospitals or are they separate all together? When you say 2-3 years behind is that because I'd have to delay my speciality training after the foundation years?

From what I understand MDHUs are integrated with their parent hospitals.

Yes, you'll be behind because you'll have to do a couple of years of general duties before you start specialty training.

You'll also be limited in what you can specialise in, and even if the army offer a specialty you are interested in whether you can get it or not is down to the needs of the service.