DS has work experience at drs surgery..

It's work experience regardless of the rating of the particular surgery - he's lucky to get it. The chances of anyone reading his UCAS application recognising the name of the practice are miniscule, and they're not going to care even so. What would you worry about? If he sees a doctor being abrupt, he'll learn from it. If he sees people being told their are no appointments available, that's just how things are at the moment. He's not going to be contaminated by it!

Might be very worthwhile looking for some work experience in a care home, too. So much of medicine is with older people, and getting a sense of how their health affects their daily life would be very useful.

Well done on getting the experience, it’s a great opportunity. There is as much to learn from places with poor reviews as there would be from places with 5 star reviews. In any case, I don’t think a 5 star NHS practice would exist as people with good experiences tend to take it for granted and not bother writing a review.
As others have said, if you Google your local NHS trust they often have a work experience programme.
Not sure how it’s working this year but when I assisted with the covid vaccines programme there were lots of would-be medical students volunteering.

I wouldn’t think too much about the reviews most of them will more than likely be because they can’t get through to them or an appointment when they want

My daughter has had no clinical work experience. She’s done the online WE courses, and other community based stuff. Universities know it’s not possible for everyone to do WE.

I have seen many UCAS forms for Medicine and nobody puts the name of the GP surgery down. It’s a waste of precious characters! He has done well to get this. He needs to write down what he learned from the experience rather than detail what he saw.

Advantage comes across in the statements. If someone writes about watching brain surgery at Queen Sq followed by paeds OP at GOSH, you start to think they may have contacts. If people talk about two days in a nursing home, you think they may have struggled to access experience.

I have never judged someone negatively about the exact location or nature of their experience. It’s unfair.

UCAS won't Google the quality of the surgery but like others say, reviews are biased anyway. I haven't needed to see our doctor but my DH has had great experiences. You wouldn't expect it if you've looked at their reviews. He's left a positive Google review out of gratitude but most people probably don't think to do it unless they are furious.

I have had 6th form students in our practice. We are a training practice but our google and nhs reviews are not great. They are an outlet to grind an axe and it's demoralising when we work so hard. Our friends and family reviews are great but not easily seen by the public. GPs are so busy at the moment that if he's got 3 days work experience I would guess that those GPs are really keen to support your DS in his application to med school. For information, the 6th formers we have had have sat with the receptionists because that's where the heart of the practice is, the nurse to learn about chronic diseases, with me in my surgery, and they have attended meetings and been on visits.
I sent links to our 6th formers so they could do some pre- placement reading.
I hope he enjoys himself. I'd also second PPs that a weekly volunteer session in a nursing home or hospice would go down well and it will help him build up his communication skills.

Definitely do the experience and don’t worry about it the reviews - anyone can write a review and people are more likely to do so if they’ve had a bad experience as they want to rant about it. As others have said, they will be qualified doctors working there so definitely do it - even if just to have some experience on his personal statement.
I asked my local GP about experience for my daughter and he said that the practice don’t allow it as it’s possible the student might end up with a patient they know (seems a bit daft to me as they could just sit out if that happened) - so I think GP work experience can be hard to come by.
Have you looked into whether there is a St John’s Ambulance Cadets locally? That’s a good way to volunteer with a medical emphasis. Also, if he is coming from a disadvantaged background a number of unis that support students during yrs 12 & 13 and some require reduced A level grades if you meet their “contextual criteria”.
if you go over to the Higher Education thread and search on the medicine threads there is loads of great info, including “virtual work experience” that you can do online and provides loads of info. Definitely do the experience and good luck!
Also look at the Southampton student mentor website: http://www.wamsocsoton.com/a-first-year

Definitely won’t matter (I’m a GP who works at a medical school). Experience that gives him insights is what matters so I agree that some volunteering could be useful. Brighton and Sussex medical school have a useful virtual course he could have a look at too https://bsmsoutreach.thinkific.com/courses/VWE. Good luck to him.

He needs to go for it.

Has he also looked at the NHS Observe GP programme?
http://www.rcgp.org.uk/training-exams/discover-general-practice/observe-gp.aspx

And looked what is available through your local NHS Trust? They often have work experience for students. Eg, this is Nottingham: https://care4notts.org/work-experience/#what-is-on-offer

My sister is a doctor- she volunteered at the local hospital once a week for around 2 years before uni. I think every Trust has a volunteer coordinator,might be worth a go

Universities are not going to Google the reviews of a place an applicant did three days of work experience at. Not that bad reviews would be any reflection on the applicant anyway

It doesn't matter! He should definitely go.

What would be interesting would be to look at the reviews in detail. What are they saying? What themes are coming out of them? It's really unusual to get this kind of work experience (well done him) but it suggests that the surgery may have a different attitude to others. Maybe he could compare what the reviews say with what he sees at the practice? If he's feeling very brave and very tactful he could even ask the team about the reviews - ' I read a review of the practice that said the receptionist was really rude. I've seen the receptionist being shouted at by three patients in a row. How do you support your staff?' All interesting stuff to talk about in an interview.

It won't make the slightest bit of difference. I would also make sure he realises he may spend the whole 3 days photocopying and other admin tasks.

Of course it won't make a difference! The patients will still be patients needing medical support and the GPS are still qualified GPs. He absolutely should NOT criticise it though regardless of its google review. (Who reviews their local GP though!)

As an aside, just three days probably won't be enough. Has he tried care homes, hospices, hospital volunteering, volunteering with disabled children/adults? It doesn't have to be medical experience - but consistent work with vulnerable people.

Go in the placement. It doesn’t matter at all, he just needs to be able to tick the right boxes on his UCAS form. I did exactly the same thing as a A-level student, it worked out for me.

Also bear in mind Google reviews aren’t going to be the most objective measure of how good an NHS service is. No-one ever posts a review after a perfectly normal and uncomplicated appointment, only when they have something major to say.

I also volunteered in a local hospice, making tea and fetching meals. Has he looked into things like that? It all counts.

Has he looked up the “widening participation” programme? He may be entitled to some extra support with his application. https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/studying-medicine/becoming-a-doctor/widening-participation-in-medicine

Universities aren't going to google reviews.

He should do it even if it's shit and boring and pop it on his applications.

I would not think there’s any chance it would hurt his UCAS application. My own observation is that many GP surgeries get bad reviews as only those with some sort of ax to grind will review them. Certainly the surgery I go to has shit reviews, but that’s not my experience . And if he gets the chance , he could ask the manager how he/she deals with bad reviews.

Go for it. It’s a surgery and it will be great experience. If it’s as bad as the reviews say, it will be something to talk about at interview. Not being rude about them, but spinning it into a positive learning.