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Why does GMC conduct the PLAB exam?
They want to regulate the knowledge and the clinical skills of the
Doctor’s who will be potentially working in the U.K health care
systems(NHS), which is supposed to be in par with the locally
trained doctors. As lots of the doctors from India and neighbouring countries are
taking up the PLAB exam to get trained in the U.K. I think it is a
safer option to clear the PLAB part-1 exam in their countries as
it is less of a financial burden and also you can save the period
of your visa to hunt for jobs as it is quite difficult to get the
first job in the U.K. Although there is news floating around, that
U.K is in need of doctors, I think it is only at a more senior
level i.e. Registrars and above. How to prepare for the PLAB exam?
It is not at all difficult as compared to the Indian entrance
exams!!!!. Then why do people fail?? Well, first of all, you need to understand the pattern of the exam
and how they are conducted. What are the topics they examine you
on? What is the level of Knowledge they expect? (Too much
knowledge is not good as you are expected to work only at a SHO
level not at a consultant level (REMEMBER-you may be a
postgraduate in your country, but the exam is based on the level
of a Senior House Officer).
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Sharpen you basics and emergency medicine skills.
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If you are already a postgraduate in a certain speciality do not
be overconfident about your knowledge, you can be caught out on a
very basic question!!!!!
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Think of the question as a clinical situation and deal with in a
step wise manner (common things comes first!!!!!).
I can go on about the preparation, but I think at the moment the
PLAB exam is not as difficult as before when the pass rates were
very low. Hence I’m sure that most of them will get through the
exam with ease as there are more courses and awareness among the
junior doctors in India now. The major problem at the moment is getting a training post in the
U.K at the SHO level after PLAB. It is sad to know that there are
a lot of highly qualified doctors still struggling to get clinical
attachments let alone getting a job. I think associations like the
BAPIO should help in setting up a pool of consultants who are
willing to take clinical observers and help them towards getting a
job. Obviously with the amount of foreign medical graduates
passing PLAB exam and entering U.K has increased enourmsley hence
the competition is increasing to get a job. The only hope is the introduction of European working directive;
this hopefully will increase the number of training posts at the
junior doctor level. I think the GMC although claims that it is
not responsible for the employment of the doctors who have passed
PLAB, should be aware of the increasing number of unemployed
doctors who are struggling financially and mentally. We are
planning to collect some data about the number of doctors who are
struggling after PLAB exams and to enlighten the problems faced by
the Foreign Medical graduates. I do not think such highly skilled community of Foreign Medical
Graduates should be treated so badly. They definitely deserve
something better!!!!!
Dr.V.N.Murthy, Specialist Registrar.
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