hey! not sure if you’ve seen how they’ve changed the foundation application in the uk, but wanted to know what you think about allocations being done by an algorithm? Also, any advice of where to pick? currently trying to rank deaneries for fy1 lol
Hi anon,
Yes I saw that and I really don't think it was a good idea. The UKFPO are going to try and say it works because more people got their first choice this year than previously (75.42% compared to 71.02%) but actually the percentage of people getting one of their top 5 compared to 2023 was lower (94.99% compared to 92.40%) This means if you don't get your first choice with the new system, you're more likely to get one that was much lower down your list.
There were definitely problems with the previous system, and whatever system they use people are going to be disappointed and not be in their first choice. But with the previous system it did feel like you could have some control over your choice, by performing better at med school/in the SJT. Now I could do a whole post on the SJT and whether it's a good test but anyway, at least having something like the scores from the PSA/a national clinical exam in final year to rank people gives them something to aim towards to increase their chances of getting to where they want to be
I guess it does allow people to get into very competitive deaneries who are perfectly good doctors but just don't perform as well in exams, but also there's only a certain number of spaces in those deaneries and a random allocation doesn't make it any more likely that people who would have previously ranked lower would get in, because there's still going to be A LOT of people ranking it highly, perhaps even more now, because some people who might have thought they 'didn't have a chance' will have ranked it higher if that makes sense haha
One thing to say is the 2 years go SO quickly, so if you do get somewhere you didn't want, it's not going to be long before you can look for jobs elsewhere/apply for specialty and try to get to a different deanery.
In terms of where to pick, there's lots of considerations and it's about deciding what's important to you
where you went to medical school - staying in the same deanery as your med school means that you might be familiar with the hospitals which can help ease you into foundation, plus if your friends are staying then this is really good for support because F1 can be tough
where your family are - again if family are a good support system for you then being near them can help!
what the training is like there - i'm fairly sure somewhere there's results comparing the foundation schools based on the national training survey, but remember all the deaneries will have a variety of hospitals - tertiary, DGH, some will have more rural things as well depending on what you want you'll have a big choice of jobs to rank once you know what deanery you're in
Hope this helps! let me know if you have any more questions, and if anyone wants to add to this feel free
Good luck with final year :)
