BMJ article on the changes to medical training and their potential impact. Curious to hear what others think.

Hey, am a recent medical graduate.I haven't figured out the "what next" in life.This has also become a biggest concern i should have least figured out while in internship, but comfort really pushed me out not facing reality. I enjoyed comfort a little to much and here I am. While during my pre final year-i figured to pursue the plab pathway, I was elated,confident as if gmc were willing to recruit me.Then the job market, priorization law hit me so bad.I dropped the plan,with no backups.

I was angry on myself,while my colleagues were on bandwagon and jumped into the rat race,and who am to judge them,they had be prepping& i felt the odd one out.Honestly this never felt right me,always like always i wanna leave this country so badd and do my residency.Am also trying this upcoming neet pg(barely 10 days left,i should prob be studying).The whole three months(since graduation)are almost me researching every single pathway for img .Funny enough During my burnout phase all my Google searches would be "career after mbbs not involving mbbs".Burnout really pulled me apart, am glad I was able overcome a little.

Each pathway has closed or slowly closing-

To sum up each pathways-(there is no long story short, its short story long here)

1.USMLE:

While ppl figured usmle in their undergrad years, and there is me after an whole ass graduation. Now the searches have become am i too late?,how to get visa or even a green card sooner?(idk man kill me it's seems lot better).The more and more I learned about usmle, it was exactly how I imagined the doing residency(only pro),cons-the financial risk,the emotional turmoil,how anxiety driven was at each phase.. Usmle consists of 4 components-the steps,usce,Lors and research.The only controllable risk here is the steps, purely networking and connections and the VISA put you on the rest three. Man I have no alumini network idk how am gonna pull this ( once if decided to put a foot on it). ONE thing about this pathway YOU ARE only AN EXCHANGE RESIDENT STUDYING IN STATES AND NEEDS TO LEAVE AFTER RESIDENCY ,BE PRESENT IN YOUR HOME COUNTRY for 2 years. Else you can get a waiver which requires you work on a very unreserved hospital.your call! And nobody is getting your h1b,you are most likely to fall under the j1.

2.Germany-

I almost convinced myself this is defo a good backup(since no backup led me to this pothole). How much I ever think it doesn't sit right with me,learning the language for two long years(no dialect included),and then starting the whole process of fsp,kp exams, then job market then non existent residency for img.

3.Australia-

Personally there is no direct entry for australia.The Amc 1 being cat based,amc 2 being a very difficult osce exams.Even when you cross the whole sea,congrats you have no jobbbb.The real bottleneck is getting your first job.The only way I see myself here is through the CAP pathway(this is a very personal preference for me!!)Good for you if you see the other way around.

4.plab-

This pathway attracts img coz its way cheaper,easier entry to a country and have no progress for years and one needs to gain nhs experience and land on residency. You can constantly come across post pointing out avoid plab if possible. Well they are True only to some extend (delulululusionalll core) . Well you can enter the country ,you might land on a job on this very narrower ,difficult market(*again delusional driven*). There are ppl not landing on non training jobs even after prior nhs experience (let alone the residency) and there are ppl who are still landing some jobs,both these extreme exist! As i tell you this, crazy enough am still gonna write plab(never trust some online person for life advice and even me) and gonna take the risk and betting everything on it, if I am lucky enough to land on one, might use this as a ground work and get into cap pathway or under circumstances if its viable to continue in uk, i will.

5.Neetpg/inicet-

I don't see myself here on long term, if someone tells you do em and later go into specialist pathway or any other pathway where you can establish yourself abroad. Not for me, being struck for 4-5 years,a biggg no.If any above pathway works well and good,but directly jumping into my home residency doesn't sit with me well. I would rather try and fail ,rather not live in guilt.

The more and more i realised i don't have a primary plan and a backup. All I have are two primary plans, gonna take one at a time and if am lucky enough to land on one.

No pathway for imgs are easier,each has its own hurdles.chose them under your own risk,also take the damn risk!

Onething if you have money, connections, or my father knows a guy- USE THEM,USE IT,USE YOUR PREVILEGE, USE YOUR RESOSURCES!!

​

24M, Indian citizen, MBBS graduate from China. I’ve completed my medical degree and am currently preparing for FMGE. After clearing it, I’ll have to complete my compulsory internship in India.

My primary goal is to eventually move out of India and settle abroad as early as realistically possible. For various personal reasons, staying in India long-term isn't something I want, so I'm trying to figure out the most practical route rather than blindly following one pathway.

My main option right now is the UK/PLAB pathway. I understand how competitive and saturated the UK market has become, but I also know IMGs are still getting jobs, sometimes within 1–2 years of applying, so I'm still considering it seriously.

At the same time, I'm wondering whether a non-clinical Master's in the UK/Australia could be a smarter way to establish myself abroad. I'm considering areas such as Digital Health, Health Informatics, Healthcare Administration, Public Health or Global Health — ideally something that makes use of my medical background rather than requiring me to completely switch into computer science/data science.

One possible plan would be:

MBBS → FMGE + internship → licensing exam (e.g. PLAB) → Master's abroad → apply for clinical jobs during/after the Master's.

Or potentially:

MBBS → FMGE + internship → licensing exam → work in India for 1–2 years while applying abroad → move once I secure a job.

I'm trying to understand whether doing a Master's abroad while simultaneously pursuing the licensing pathway would actually give me a meaningful advantage — e.g. local experience/networking, a stronger CV, and another career option if clinical employment doesn't work out.

For someone with my background, which route would you consider the smarter strategy for getting out of India and eventually settling abroad: going directly for the clinical pathway, or doing a relevant non-clinical Master's abroad while keeping the clinical pathway alive?

I'd really appreciate advice from people who have actually gone through something similar, especially IMGs who have considered both clinical and non-clinical routes.

Doctors plz if you didn’t booked plab or failed plab 1 plz don’t go for plab ..because i got nothing after Plab journey and still nothing in my hand after passing from many years ….rather give amc which is safer and sure then plab ..even after plab struggle continue for job then no chance of residency and unsurity of contract extension which can lead to back to home country and all effort and time will en wasted ….so guys plz don’t give PLAB it’s really not worth it now at all …save your essential time and your precious years ….first secure your future for residency then you can migrate to any country …at least you me carrier will he on safer track …Hope you guys understand and avoid plab exam

Hello All! I am a UK citizen and have lived in the UK My whole life. I recently graduated as a medical doctor with an MBBS qualification from Plovdiv in Bulgaria and I wanted to ask if anybody could help with how to successfully get clinical attachments.

I completed my medical degree in December 2025 and am currently preparing to begin my medical career in the UK. I am in the process of finalising my GMC registration

I did successfully succeed in gaining a clinical attachment for the whole month of November, however, I have been unlucky in other places. I have applied to maybe 50 hospitals emailed over 300 consultants telling them who I am and attaching my CV.

I wanted to ask you all if you knew any hospitals were taking clinical attachments, what is the best way to succeed in gaining these attachments and finally anything I can do to help my odds in getting one.

I am genuinely happy to move anywhere in the UK for the duration of my clinical attachment and I’m happy to be in any department which can give me NHS exposure. Anywhere in the UK I would happily move to for a month or two.

Thank you for your help!

Any has plab 2 recalls? Can you send it to me. Let me know how years recalls we have to do

Hey! I'm reappearing for PLAB 2 in Oct last week. Looking for female partners to practice cases regularly from Sept through Oct.

If anyone is interested HMU!

Also now that DSR is closed, any recommendations for places to practice procedures such as catheterisation and CPR etc?

Hope youre doing well. I wanto to ask those who sat for the exam, what was the answer of the opthalmo question? It had a picturethe patient was hypertensive and the options included hypertensive retinopathy, diabetes retino..., hemorrhage something like that.

I have just received my eligibility confirmation for UKFP27, and I am in need of someone in a similar boat. I am not working so I have a lot of time and flexibility. The goal is to study for PLAB 2 and NCA, with heavier priority on NCA since it has a lot of weight and is taken once a year. Let's connect and pass.

UK has always been at the top of the list for training and migration for me (I have relatives there, and I loved the country when I visited). I love my own country, and I would genuinely love to be here, but I am gay, and it's criminalised here. Needing a way out of the homophobic family is my main reason to migrate. We are also the third most underpaid country for doctors.

Anyway, even after the PLAB pathway closed off, I still had hopes for the MTI pathway since that program had established routes with my country's own speciality training pathway. Now I am starting to worry I'll end up stuck here, and it's very depressing.

What are the next options you are looking at? US? Australia? Is there a reason you prefer one country over the other?

From my research, I've realised that the US is mainly good for primary care specialities, and the process is the most expensive and unpredictable.

Australia seems to be much easier to get to as a medical officer, but getting into speciality training (especially the more competitive ones) seems difficult (and requires PR, which also takes a good while). Of course, there is the option to migrate as a specialist but that would be around 2036, and I'm worried that the specialist migration pathways will close down by then and I'll be stuck here.

I'm at a loss here, I'd love to hear your plan Bs and advices

Final year MBBS student in a very top ranked uni, ready to give PLAB, my target speciality is anesthesiology or orthopedic surgery, if anyone has any tips or advice please let me know, thank you!

Hi, just beginning prep fro plab 2 and my exam is on 15th November, need honest guidance as to which academy should I choose in Manchester.

Hi all,

I'm currently going through the process in Ireland, but the wait for a exam similar to PLAB 2 (PRES 3) there is about 1.5 years. I started the process a year ago so plus 1.5 years is gonna be a total for 2.5 or 3 years.

I've heard the UK route might be faster, so I'm considering switching, but I want real numbers before I commit.

If you've been through this recently, could you share:

PLAB 1: How long after creating your GMC account did you actually get a seat? (UK or any EU venue — Dublin, Madrid, etc.)

PLAB 2: Once you passed PLAB 1, roughly how long did you wait to get a PLAB 2 slot?

Did booking times vary a lot depending on which venue/country you picked?

I know GMC releases seats periodically and they can fill up fast, but I'm trying to get a realistic picture from people who've actually lived through it recently (2025/2026), not just what's on forums from a few years back.

Any insight — even just "it took me X months" would help a lot. Thanks!

Context: I'm an img who recently graduated, i have a bit of disposable money and I'm gonna give the plab exam even though it's dead just for a try, in the meantime I'm gonna go to the UK to study a master's, does anyone know about the job market for other careers? Ex- genomics scientist/ bioinformatics/ computational biologist? Ive seen news that the uk is expanding its life sciences workforce so I'm trying to find out the ground reality and would really appreciate any local experience about difficulty in switching careers away from being a doctor into more of a scientist role.

My Back up plan if i can't find any job in the UK that can sponsor a visa is to come back home and continue on the doctor pathway and maybe after reaching consultant level try for jobs in the gulf. Any advice?

Has there been a rule change recently? Why is everyone warning me but not giving me specifics lmfao will I have to give the exam?

hi im a 4th year med student at a top 10 medical school in the MENA region (its #3 in egypt in case it matters?) ive been seeing people talk about how plab is a dead pathway and stuff but ive only started looking into it and i have hopes of pursuing general surgery special training in the uk but everyone’s been talking about how thats never gonna happen because its way too competitive now etc etc. my question is- realistically speaking is it worth shooting my shot?? or should i stick to the usmle/other pathways. thank you in advance

Hi. I need Plab2 August 2026 recalls. Can anyone please help?