I'm planning on doing both in November. For those who did both, what are the differences and similarities? Should I study them separately? Any advice regarding resources for either will be appreciated
Hi everyone 🌸 I'm a final-year UK medical student, and I built a tool called Magnolia for anyone applying to the Foundation Programme.
I know how hard it is to rank all 18 UK deaneries when you may never have lived here, so Magnolia lets you compare them side by side, with GMC training-survey ratings, the full application timeline (including the IMG/PLAB steps), and a free community ranking feature that shows how this year's applicants are actually ranking.
Have a look: https://magnolianavigator.com/
Independent tool, not affiliated with UKFPO. Happy to answer any questions.
I'm impressed they managed to allocate this many people,but the small % left how are people feeling any alternative pathways, waiting it out for next year ?
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.
Good luck everybody! Who got allocated this time!
The BMA Scottish Resident Doctors Committee elections are now underway!
We are delighted that two Better Together candidates have already won local seats, and we now need your support for our endorsed IMG candidates standing in the Scottish RDC elections:
🇪🇬 Mohamed Elbanna
🇮🇶 Zain Alabdeen Al-Mosawy
If you are eligible to vote in Scotland, please support Mohamed and Zain and encourage your colleagues to vote too.
We want to ensure that IMG voices are strongly represented, while building a BMA that represents and brings together all resident doctors.
Every vote matters. Every voice matters.
🤝 BETTER TOGETHER — representing all doctors, together.
I’m a GP. One of the staff at my GP (British citizen) has been working as a HCA for many years but I just found out they have a medical degree from overseas
Pre COVID they had an FY1 role lined up but due to life circumstances didn’t complete the requirements in time. Since then, life has caused them to fall into their current role and they’ve been continuing this for various reasons with the hope of eventually going through the process of starting FY1.
As a colleague, I am encouraging him to try and restart his career and reach his potential. But I can see with recent prioritisation, this may be difficult/nigh impossible. But I’m far from FY1 so not as familiar.
So any advice? Is this now not a feasible parhway for British IMGs? For an IMG without an internship, is it essentially impossible then to work as a doctor in UK?
The UKFPO can confirm that 69 applicants were allocated to a Foundation School on 29 July 2026 during round 4 of the reserve allocation process.
Following these allocations, 204 applicants remain on the reserve list.
The UKFPO will run a fifth round of allocation. Dates for round 5 have been added to the 2026 application timeline. As with the last four rounds, the number of applicants allocated to a Foundation School in round 5 will be dependent on the number of vacancies available at that time.
Please note that round 5 will be the final round of allocation for the 2026 Foundation Programme.