To think I can apply for post grad med school with a 2.2 in languages from 15 years ago?

Indeed doctors such as yourself are the backbone of the NHS we should be treating you decently, I'd like to think our trust does but one only really knows about one's own department.

There are more places than that in London where you can study. I don't realistically think it will be possible for you, having recently done a lot of research about medicine applications, but there are more places than St Georges

In a DGH it can be flipping hard work (especially if your only other onsite anaesthetist is a CT1 just on the rota)! We're also at the tricky deliveries (because if the obstetricians can't get them out in the room we're going to theatre... and even if they can get them out we're often heading to theatre), and in resus, and in theatre and on ICU and occasionally on the paediatric ward, and at the cardiac arrests/trauma/medical emergency calls, and putting cannulas in because fewer people seem to be able to, and doing bloods (ditto!). Switching from day to night/working long days in a row does get harder in middle-age, but that's not the reason I'm done. Having to work on my days off, getting no SPA time (but still having to do the work), having career development obstructed, getting completely ignored because only the consultants and the resident doctors are valued... those are the main difficulties.

Be aware that newly qualified doctors (post F2) are really struggling to find work.

Unless the Government changes its mind and applies some form of Resident Market Labour Test for entry level jobs, new doctors are facing huge international competition with often several hundred applications for quite ordinary jobs. This year over half the specialist training places went to doctors who qualified outside the UK, and DD only knows one of her F2 peers across her whole deanery who has a training place (for GP.)

So at the end of eight years there is nothing. Leave the profession, move to Australia or try to survive on short term locum (NHS bank) work, perhaps supplementing it with another zero hours job.

And expect, either for Foundation (which is now allocated randomly rather than by merit) or if you can find work, to have to relocate to wherever the opportunities are.

On the positive side, this approach means that if you can't find a medical school place in the UK and choose to study overseas you are not at a disadvantage should you then chose to return to the UK. Indeed some overseas medical schools are much more proactive in helping prepare their graduates for the UK job market than UK medical schools.

I’ve not read everyone’s responses so apologies if this has been suggested already. But from what you’ve said I would really recommend doing a biology or chemistry degree with the OU. I did a maths degree with them for fun when I had my two babies as I too loved studying (I had a 2:1 undergrad in law from a Russell group uni but always loved maths and wished I had studied maths). I think that’s much more the idea you had in your head of studying. I think it would allow you to get something out of your system (the regret over your original degree) but also; if medicine is still in your head at the end of that - you’ll be in a much stronger position.

A medical degree is way more than "normal" studying. When you reach the clinical years of your degree, you will need to be on the wards from, potentially, 8am to 5pm. And in hospitals all over London and beyond. Take a look at the placement map for St G and you'll see where you are likely to need to travel by 8am.

Even the the early, academic years are very full on, with teaching likely to take place from 8.00 to 6pm.

You won't necessarily have a standard pattern either, so you'll need lots of ad hoc childcare.

It's really, really hard to manage around raising kids, unless you can find a PT course.

If this is a dream of yours, your best bet is to talk to a careers advisor at your local college with a view to taking an access course now. Look at getting relevant experience work experience too. This could be working as an HCA or carer (paid) or volunteering. You will NEED relevant work experience to pass the interview let alone the paper screening.

Good luck!

Why do you need to wait until they are at uni?

High school is plenty old enough to be letting yourself in from school.

Hi OP, Would you consider doing some self-study A levels, as a start?

You can do them entirely from home through an online school like Pembrokeshire College Online. We are using the school for our DC and they are very good.

You can do the exams as a private candidate at an exam centre like Tutors and Exams.

Alternatively, you could maybe get a job as a translator in your local GP practice or hospital if you are good at languages. That would be incredibly useful and you would get to think about all the medical stuff and talk to patients.

How do you find that Greybeardy ? I guess if you have done it for a longtime maybe it is second nature ? By the end of my training I didn't need to think too much on a night shift. TBF covering 2nd on call in anaesthetics is different from being the medical 1st on in A&E on your feet all night or the peadiatric doctor attending every complicated labour ward delivery.....

I think the entry requirements could be managed with access courses etc if you are determined but if you talk to anyone who has done it with children I would ask carefully what their childcare arrangements are. The parent doctor's I know can only make it work with heavy grandparent involvement (eg one chose a school nearer the grandparents so grandparents could do school runs...). Although their children are younger than yours would be.
Are your children generally quite robust and happy to go to wraparound/holiday care? One of mine is and one of mine would really struggle to cope.
Sorry to sound negative but it doesn't sound realistic if you couldn't manage a full time job.
I'm really sorry about your experiences at uni previously. I'm sorry if this is an unhelpful question, but is it possible that some of your feelings around your degree and your feeling of needing to make up for it in some way/change direction are linked to everything else that was going on in your life at the time? Just ignore if that's not a helpful comment. It sounds like you did well to actually graduate at all in the circumstances.
Wishing you all the best whatever you decide to do.

Not to be harsh OP but there is no way. Medicine is a very competitive course and all applicants will have excellent exam scores in the relevant sciences and often maths too.

If you really want to do this then you need to start with the relevant science A-Levels and go from there. There is no shortcut.

I'm a staff grade anaesthetist - there's an awful lot of us in our late 40s/50s still covering rotas.

I would carefully look into Operating Department Practice and Speech and Language Therapy, they both sound like they could be possible.
Speech and language therapy is very varied, and some therapists work in very “medical” settings, including things like post-surgical cancer treatment and neurosurgery, radiology, NICU… Although it’s in a hospital setting, it’s much less likely to involve shift work than medicine or nursing.

For allied health degrees, you CAN still get a student loan for an undergrad course, even if you already have a different degree. I don’t know if medicine has different rules.
You also get an NHS bursary, and a bursary towards childcare costs if your children are under, I think 16.

Even if graduate medicine is your ultimate dream, working in one of these areas could be a first step. You’d get a relevant degree, and have relevant experience if you did decide to apply for medicine later on.

Some ODP degrees include a foundation year for people without recent experience of study, which might be another alternative to an access course.
Usually you need evidence of recent (ie within 5 years) study or relevant recent experience.

I don’t know enough about it to offer advice like others say I suspect it’ll be a lot of work & a big commitment but if it’s what you really want to do, I suspect it’s not impossible. There’s someone I follow on Instagram who is doing this, she’s now in med school - hannahfgale - she is an influencer so I would guess she makes money/funds it via that, but she also has 2 kids & has followed a less conventional path so might be worth looking at - good luck!

@CautiousLurker01 Can I suggest you start your own thread? I wouldn’t recommend GEM as a route as it is so much more competitive to get a place.

When you say your DS had a mishap with GCSEs, do you mean he wasn’t able to take the A level subjects he needs to get into med school? If he just didn’t get great grades, he could still apply to schools that don’t use GCSEs to select candidates for interview. Alternatively, he might have a better chance applying post A level with grades in hand and a gap year working as an HCA.

If he is really passionate about medicine, I would explore all the other alternative routes first before pinning his hopes on GEM.

30 years ago my friends sister did a postgraduate medical degree with an English undergraduate. However it was a specific scheme to get people into GP training who’d had some life experience. She is still a GP now.

Medicene seems extremely unlikely with your qualifications and work history.

Why not consider nursing, midwifery, paramedic etc?

@Changednameadviceneededxx Have you looked at being an operating department practitioner? That would get you in the theatre. I did an access course many years ago to get into physio (in the end I found my science just wasn’t strong enough - I didn’t get what i needed at a level hence being on the access course needed a B and got a C and couldn’t get through 3years of it) but I wish I had one persevered as I regret not getting into healthcare. However we got an insight into all the allied health courses and I think being an ODP sounded fascinating. Have a look into it, might be something you would be interested in, as you assist surgeons and are involved in pre and post op etc.

Agree with PP, looking at being an operating department practitioner. Shorter training and you get to work in operating theatre, and there is some funding available whilst you study.

Credit to you for your ambition @Changednameadviceneededxx

Your current qualifications won't get you on the course you want but you can do an access course that will help you.

However, my bil is a surgeon and the training is grueling. Unless you have a huge support network who can help look after your children overnight, at weekends, early mornings, late nights etc then I'm not sure how you plan to carry out the degree. You will do lengthy placements evey year, some courses require you to do this at different hospitals within the UK, some offer placements abroad.

Once qualified the process is hard going. You basically get 2 hats. 1 with names and 1 with jobs. They pick one from each and that is where you are posted. There is very little choice , how will you cope with kids and being posted potentially miles away? Is dad involved, because although 6 now, you would need a year of access course followed by 5-7 years training for surgery which would take them to GCSE age...

I am not sure you have thought through the practical side of this.

If OP has children, she should be eligible for the pre-allocation scheme for foundation training to allow her to be prioritised for a local placement. Less than full time training is also a possibility although whether it is a good idea to do that considering she is already starting late is another matter.

If I were OP, I would research entry requirements for medicine, get some work as an HCA to get a feel for whether she really wants to pursue medicine and consider doing an access course anyway as it will be acceptable for other life science degrees.

There is really very little true chemistry in a medical degree. It's an entry requirement because it's the hardest A-level to get a high grade in. It lets universities screen for the highest-ability students.

It is absolutely not impossible. If you're prepared to knuckle down to meet the entry requirements (science subjects, GAMSAT, interview prep, etc.), you can do it. But it'll be a long slog to come out the other side, as others have noted, and med school is a breeze compared to the realities of being a doctor. Being a mother as well is going to make it even tougher. But still: not impossible.

As a humanities grad, I went through a similar phase and thoroughly researched my options. What I'll recommend you do ASAP, even before studying your science subjects, is to get ward experience in the NHS. Sign up for bank HCA roles. Make sure you'd be happy working in the NHS, because that'll be your future workplace. Speak to doctors. Are they happy? Do they recommend a career in medicine? Being on the wards will be enlightening and give a realistic, as opposed to romantic, view of both the NHS and healthcare professions.

So sorry to hear what you went through when younger. Good luck to you, whatever you decide.

No, there isn’t an age restriction.

Have you considered midwifery? I really wanted to do medicine as a mature student (had a BSC in psychology) but spoke to some doctors I knew and realised that I’d missed the boat; the many years training, gruelling junior doctor years and being sent anywhere in the country every few years just wasn’t compatible with having young children. I qualified as a midwife at the age of 38 and there are so many options available to you! Specialist midwives, safeguarding, research, academia. Having worked in a hospital setting for 4 years I’m so so glad I didn’t do medicine, it’s insanely tough and unless you’re a consultant not particularly well paid. Admittedly doctors have scope to earn more than I ever will but it’s a long hard graft to get there and the pressure of the job is absolutely brutal.