Interview and personal statement prep
Medical schools expect you to understand the health service you want to join. Work through the whole thing, start to finish, with our guided Reading Guide — or dip into a theme below.
Current themes
Read widely, form your own view, and back it with evidence. These summaries are a starting point — the Reading Guide walks you through each one in depth.
01 · Start here
Before the debates, learn the framework behind almost every ethics question — and a simple method to structure an answer to a scenario you have never seen. Start your ethics reading here.
Read the full guideLegislation on assisted dying has prompted debate across medicine and society. Interviewers want balanced reasoning, not a verdict: autonomy, vulnerability, safeguards and conscientious objection.
Read the full guideLife expectancy and health outcomes vary sharply by region and income. Mental health demand, especially in young people, adds further strain.
Read the full guide02
England's long-term plan centres on three shifts: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. Be ready to explain what each shift means for patients and what could stop it working.
Read the full guideHow the NHS is paid for and put together, the abolition of NHS England, and why the social care crisis shows up as hospital pressure through delayed discharge.
Read the full guide03
Industrial action by resident doctors and competition for specialty training posts put workforce planning in the headlines. Know the arguments on both sides, the training bottleneck, and why retention matters.
Read the full guideThe Leng Review of physician and anaesthesia associates in England reshaped their roles. It is a superb case study in patient safety, transparency and team working.
Read the full guide04
Long elective waits, A&E pressure and delayed discharge are linked. Understand why they happen as a patient-flow problem and the trade-offs in tackling them.
Read the full guideGetting a GP appointment, continuity of care and the shift to multidisciplinary neighbourhood teams are central to current reform.
Read the full guideNew obesity medications, junk-food advertising rules, smoking policy and the sugar levy raise questions about cost, equity and personal responsibility.
Think about: Should the NHS fund weight-loss drugs for everyone who could benefit?
05
The NHS App, ambient voice technology and AI-assisted diagnosis promise efficiency, but raise questions about accuracy, bias, consent and data privacy.
Read the full guideFast, cheap genome sequencing and CRISPR gene editing open the door to curing genetic disease — and to hard questions about embryos, “designer babies”, access and genetic privacy.
Read the full guideThe Reading Guide takes you through every topic in order — one at a time, from the ethics method to the latest policy — so you finish with the whole picture.
How to use these
State the issue, give two or more perspectives, weigh them using ethical principles (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice), then give a reasoned conclusion and say what could change your mind.
Connect a theme to something you saw in work experience or volunteering. Specific, honest reflection beats a list of facts.
Health is devolved. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run separate services, so check which one the school you are applying to is in.
These topics change quickly. Check recent coverage from the BMJ, BBC Health, NHS England, the BMA, The King's Fund and the Nuffield Trust before your interview, as details may have moved on since this page was written.
Our mentors run realistic MMI and panel mocks with detailed feedback.
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