Aspiring doctor from Australia wanting to work in the UK...

[lunasupernova]

I'm currently doing a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and I plan on going onto post-grad medicine. I intend on moving to the UK at some point (to live there permanently) but I am unsure as to *when* I should do this. I am an Australian and EU citizen (Irish) but have lived in Australia my whole life.

1. Move to the UK after I complete my Bachelor degree. I can't afford to pay for med school as an international student, so I guess I'd have to wait 3 years and then apply, but this isn't really ideal... It means that I probably won't graduate from med until I'm 30 and then there's the residency...
2. Complete med school here, and possibly do my residency in the UK. Is this possible? This option sounds good to me but I'm not sure how realistic this is.

I don't want to have to complete both med school and residency training here in Australia because then I'd have to repeat my residency in the UK and it would just be a big waste of time. What is the best option for me?

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[lunasupernova]

Also, it might be useful to know that I plan on specializing in Emergency Medicine, or that would be my first preference anyway. I know it's quite a bit early to be thinking about that but that is the area I am most interested in.

 

[Medstart108]

I'm not 100% sure if you can do #2. Its very likely possible to switch into the UK system after med school, I just don't know whether it will be right after med school into UK foundation years or right after internship into UK Speciality training.

Whatever it is, doing med school in Australia is likely the cheaper option and the one you should take.

 

[lunasupernova]

Someone in another forum told me that if I move to Ireland and live there for 3 months, I can then apply for medical school in Scotland (with free tuition fees apparently). Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[Medstart108]

Someone in another forum told me that if I move to Ireland and live there for 3 months, I can then apply for medical school in Scotland (with free tuition fees apparently). Does anyone know anything about this?

I heard there was a loophole but i'm not sure what the particulars of it are. I'm not sure how well you are doing in your Bachelor's but Scottish medical schools are pretty tough to get into.

 

[MonteCristo84]

This "loophole" sounds as if it exploits European Union rules:

1. Scotland provides tuition-free education to Scottish students.
2. European Union rules don't permit member states to enact any policy that obstructs movement of people across the EU. Scotland cannot therefore impose fees on EU students that aren't imposed on those from Scotland. Oddly this doesn't apply to English or Welsh students at Scottish universities because the EU considers the United Kingdom to be a single country and so this "discrimination" does not prevent movement of people between member states.
3. Northern Ireland is an EU country that is distinct from the UK. This loophole sounds as if being resident in the EU for "3 months" earns you the same rights as an EU citizen. I have no idea whether or not that is true and certainly wouldn't count on that loophole existing in the future. You could try looking at the "tuition fees" pages of some Scottish universities and see how they define "EU" status, e.g. "resident in an EU member state for at least three months preceding application".

Regardless of where you go to medical school, visit www.gmc-uk.org to learn about whatever process you would have to go through to count your Australian qualifications towards practicing in the UK. To be honest, I would be amazed if you didn't have your pick of Emergency Medicine jobs in the UK. The specialty is in crisis with 50% of training jobs unfilled and 75% of positions vacant in Scotland. This is about to get worse with the new junior doctor contract that is already driving UK trained doctors to Canada, Australia (!!), and the US. I'm very confident that the system would find a way to fit you in if that's what you want to do.

Quite why you would want to practice in the UK at the moment, I'm not quite sure!