Can't find any relevant work experience/volunteering - is it over?

Hello, I was relatively late to realising that I want to study medicine at university and this has left me in a dire situation in terms of arranging work experience and the like, I started scouring for opportunities in early may which theoretically should have been doable since I had a good 6 months until applications had to be off.

I want to apply for 2016 entry however it has been extremely difficult to find any placements. I have a placement to volunteer at a charity shop and at a childrens centre to do arts and crafts and the like however it is proving to be impossible to find a placement at a hospital or GP practice, even volunteering at a care home or a disabled school.

How do people actually find placements? I have scoured the internet for weeks sending off applications, emails and phoning practices but every single place has said they aren't taking on people for work experience or in the rare case that they are available the placements have already been taken. I have no connections to the medical industry and can't afford to pay for private hospitals placements as I don't come from a well off family.

This is extremely fustrating for me as I'm very confident in getting the grades and hitting the UKCAT score but in terms of finding volunteering placements I'm having no luck at all.

Well I applied this year without doing any kind of work experience in a hospital or GP and came out with an offer. If you look through the websites of medical schools, you'll find that although work experience and volunteering is a requirement, this doesn't have to be in a hospital. They know how hard it can be to find a placement. I myself spent a couple of months calling different hospitals and GPs but ended up doing 6 months in a care home, 1 month in a pharmacy and another 6 months volunteering for a charity. I personally found that I had so much more to talk about as I was actively doing things and not just following a doctor around.
My advice to you would be to call all the care homes, pharmacies and any other healthcare related services in your area.

Thats what I'm saying, I've applied for several care homes and been rejected or ignored at every one so far.

I also applied to a pharmacy and the man in charge said it was useless for medicine and that I should look somewhere else for a placement doing volunteering.

By "apply" do you mean email or phone call. I find that calling them makes it less likely for them to reject you

I called the pharmacy and the care home I was talking about previously, I've called the majority of establishments tbh haha

All I can say that you can't give up; keep calling as many places as possible. If you get the grades and UKCAT score to get an interview, only to tell them you have no experience is pretty much an instant rejection.
Have you considered taking a gap year. I find that people that take gap year get SO much work experience, volunteering and part time jobs.

I've considered it, I'm not sure however depending on how I feel I could just give up and do engineering if nothing comes up.

When you applied to care homes did you word it as if you were volunteering at the care home or as if it was a work experience placement?

I've considered it, I'm not sure however depending on how I feel I could just give up and do engineering if nothing comes up.

When you applied to care homes did you word it as if you were volunteering at the care home or as if it was a work experience placement?

People generally approach care homes for volunteering, not work experience. Work experience implies a shorter period and you don't generally get a doctor working at a care home so that doesn't make an awful lot of sense. Plus you'd probably have to get a DBS check regardless of the length of time there, and a couple of weeks' work experience doesn't sound worth that process to anyone.

PS The guy at the pharmacy was mostly correct. Caring experience (volunteer work, that is) is what you need to be trying to get more than anything. There's not really that much of that in a pharmacy.

Cheers for the help gang but im doing chemical engineering now ahaha

What did you say over the phone and in emails when ringing the sites up?

omfg a gp responded hype

and I just said can i volunteer/work experience when relevant nothing much really don't think it had anything to do with me being a c*nt but its possible