Is studying medicine still worth it

Medicine might appear to be a 'glamourous' career or something that has big 'show-off' potential. Its actually a very tough, demanding degree - and an equally exhausting career. Many applicants are not very realistic about this.
Look at other courses, and other careers as well - you might find something that intrigues/interests you far more than just being a doctor :
Undergraduate | School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine | University of Bristol
Course Search | University of Leeds
Natural Sciences - Lancaster University

Hi
My cousin is doing her A levels and she's worked so hard to get where she is now and continues to do so but when she told one of her teachers what she plans to study next she was told there's no point there's no guarantee after med school that you'll even get a place on Foundation training as a lot of graduates and doctors are finding themselves unemployed and now she's worried that's it'll all be for nothing if she can't get a place.
Is any of those true I thought doctors were definitely guaranteed a place on Foundation training and then you have to really work hard for a place on your chosen speciality?

Regrettably, this is correct. The graduate prospects for medical graduates have drastically changed in recent years and you're not guaranteed jobs at the end of the degree anymore, nor training after the foundation years. The prospects have become rather bleak very quickly. Some people on this thread are hopeful that the situation will be fixed in a few years. The cynical in me thinks this is unlikely, but not impossible.
In any case, medicine was never an easy career to get into. There was always a considerable degree of passion overriding practical considerations when you pursue a career in medicine, there are just now more practical considerations that passion needs to override. If your cousin's passion still overrides this, then it'd be a pity for them to quit.

The fact that someone now completes FY2 and then gets released is astounding. At the very least the successive governments should have made funds available to keep these doctors on at the same level as a FY2 doctor so that they are retained until they can eventually get a speciality training post. It does seem like the current funding model through NI is unworkable to address the financial black hole in NHS workforce funding.

“5 years of your life committed prior to final qualification, with the promise of another 5 years on top(minimum) until you reach consultant level in general practice”
To be fair, there are very few careers where you get to the equivalent of ‘consultant level’ in less than ten years.

I'm not sure I would agree with that. I know plenty of people who earn more money than the average consultant might and it didn't take them 10 years to get there.

“5 years of your life committed prior to final qualification, with the promise of another 5 years on top(minimum) until you reach consultant level in general practice”
To be fair, there are very few careers where you get to the equivalent of ‘consultant level’ in less than ten years.

Doctors have constantly gone on strike to get higher salaries, and the pot of money the government relies on from NI taxes has eventually run out. Doctors trained in the UK might complain that overseas doctors are taking their positions in speciality training, but that is exactly what UK trained medical graduates have been doing themselves in Australia and New Zealand for decades, by moving abroad for work. There needs to be a system where UK medical graduates have to spend at least several years in the NHS on a compulsory basis, in exchange for getting priority for speciality training places.

Doctors have constantly gone on strike to get higher salaries, and the pot of money the government relies on from NI taxes has eventually run out. Doctors trained in the UK might complain that overseas doctors are taking their positions in speciality training, but that is exactly what UK trained medical graduates have been doing themselves in Australia and New Zealand for decades, by moving abroad for work. There needs to be a system where UK medical graduates have to spend at least several years in the NHS on a compulsory basis, in exchange for getting priority for speciality training places.

Did they earn that money legally, or morally? Investment bankers like to stab each other in the back to get ahead.

There is no way I am agreeing to being indentured service for the NHS thanks. In the main it treats it's workforce appallingly.
In no other country will a UK graduate be treated as an equal. Not in North America, not in New Zealand nor Australia. No UK graduate (nor any other non-indigenous graduate for that matter) will be given any priority over a domestic graduate in these countries. UK doctors do indeed emigrate to Australia etc for work, but they are left with the positions that domestic graduates simply do not wish to fill. This usually means working in far-flung locales or in less competitive specialties.
You categorically cannot even apply to speciality training in Australia unless you have permanent residency to reside there AND you will not be on a level footing with Australian graduates, you'll be second in line compared to them.
The main bonus of working in the Southern Hemisphere is that A the country and the people are epic (and the weather), B beautiful sun/climate and surfing and C you get paid a lot more for doing the same job. Also D non-NHS approach to healthcare (i.e. every thing they do isn't constrained by trying to run services on a shoe-string).
In North America, even if you completely ace the USMLE, don't be thinking you care going to get the pick of a neurosurgery job in Los Angeles for residency as a UK graduate. You won't. The majority of UK graduates applying there have to work very hard and network to get a residency and it won't be in the desirable specialty nor location when you do get one.
Lastly, I do not believe the BMA have any kind of trick up their sleeves that will significantly improve doctor's salaries for the duration of this parliament and probably well into the next one. The UK economy is lacklustre and our debt and spending is going to stay that way for some years I feel.

What was the position on UK medical graduates working in Australia just before the pandemic in 2019? Was it possible to work in a nice hospital in Sydney? There was a nutter on my MSc course who emigrated to Sydney just before the pandemic hit, and works in a hospital there. No idea whether it was a permanent move or not, but l would guess that was the intention longer term.

For anyone contemplating studying medicine I would say that you need to be able to answer a very firm and solid 'yes' to two questions:
Question A
Do you have a genuine and very real desire to study every aspect of the human body and everything that modern medicine encompasses and follow this programme of study for a minimum of 5 years?
AND
Question B
Do you have a genuine desire to develop a career in medicine and actually work as a doctor?
I would say that answering yes to A is pretty much essential as your love of the course is what will sustain you through the long long years ahead.
Answering yes to B is not actually mandatory, but it would help with A.
If you want to study medicine due to:

If any of the above applies to you, then I can promise that you will be extremely disappointed come the end of it, should you manage to actually obtain a place on the course and I would urge anyone in this position to strongly reconsider.
By starting a medical course, you are entering into the following arrangement:

Unless you genuinely enjoy studying medicine and working with patients and their health, you are gonna be in for a bad time. It's that simple.