Final year medicine NHS bursary not enough

[iabvvu]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the education topic so I'm not sure if this has been asked before. I also really don't want to sound like a princess - I know that many people are in much harder situations than myself. This is only temporary and I know how lucky I am to be in this position!

I'm in my final year of medicine which is funded by the nhs - my tuition is fully paid for and I get the maximum £394 per month plus non-means tested student finance loan. While I'm so grateful for the help I get, it really isn't enough to cover my living costs. After my commitments every month I'm left with under £200. This would probably be doable if it was just for food but I have multiple distant placements and have to do out of hours shifts so getting by without a car would be hugely difficult (and also expensive!). On my last 4 week placement I had to spend £40 on parking and petrol costs amounted to approx £90.

I've applied for my university hardship fund but they argued that I'm not an essential car user so they wouldn't take any car related costs into account. I really can't see how I'd get myself back from twilight shifts without a car. I think it would negatively affect my attendance on placement but maybe I'm being entitled?

My parents can't help me any more (they would love to if they could), I've maxed out my overdraft and minimised spending but I've reached the point at which I really can't see any other options. I'll finish my exams next May and start working next August (if I pass!) so there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel but I can't see how I'm going to through until then. I've had to completely stop socialising, Christmas presents are a myth this year and I'm living as frugally as possible day to day.

I've had a look for part time work but I can't see anything flexible enough at the moment. My timetable is different every week and the hours are long, I'm not sure how it would work but I'm willing to try.

My question is - has anyone else been in this situation/ had a DC in this situation and been unable to help? If so, what did you do?

Or scroll to the bottom of the page on this link
www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-bursary-students/medical-and-dental-students

@peteneras come to my deanery. We can be sent anywhere South of London between Chichester and Margate. Even a central town isn't commutable everywhere.
From a medical school pov. Kings in London sends students to Chichester. My London medical school sent me to Belfast for a GP placement. They paid accommodation I had to pay flights and other transport

Yes, an open and honest talk with your flatmates is the starting point.

Speak to your tutor and your student union ASAP

I also suggest looking at charitable funds. There are a surprising number of funds that support education in local areas (look at your home area) plus obscure funds that support people in different categories e.g children of engineers or female scientists.

It might require a thick skin, but crowdfunding? I think people would be willing to help out a medical student who is so close to the end of their studies.

Look at this link about the Denise Coates Foundation:
www.staffs.ac.uk/news-archive/bet365-Foundation-awards-fifty-student-scholarships-tcm4288232.jsp

So some of this may be a little out of date as I qualified 20(!) years ago but I had my eldest son whilst at medical school and money was v tight with childcare included.
I used to pick up carer/care assistant work or cleaning . Often nights so didn't interfere with placements. Officially I wasn't meant to work but if I didn't mention it/ make a big deal noone seemed to care. If I had to park for a placement I would search for streets a mile or so away and fast walk in ( aware this would piss people off in those streets but if you pick somewhere far enough away and vary it ,it seemed to work). I also controversially would show up as a minimum on placements to be "signed off" ( mainly for childcare reasons). You will be encouraged to stay late to "help out". And if you want to be a transplant surgeon then great stay late to assist.... But if not and you need to get a bus home just be honest.

Appreciate this may be all out of date.

Eyes on the prize..... It gets better I promise!

Just done the maths and the 20 years was hyperbole! Actually 15 years since I qualified :)

Oh love it sounds hard.
Have you tried matched betting? You could easily make a few hundred quid a mo th and don't need anything more than an Internet connection and a brain. It would circumnavigate the 'no working' rule and is tax free.
I don't imagine that getting rid of the car is at all viable, you'd only have to spend the money on buses anyway.

I waitressed every Sunday for the last 3 years, lots of friends did bank shifts as HCAs. A few negotiated ridiculous loans with the bank which they were given due to guaranteed future employment .
Everyone has to do something - harsh but you have just got to step up and sort it out yourself. If your university don't think you are entitled to the hardship fund it's likely you are in the same bracket as lots of others.
Agree try to ditch the car - how do your peers all manage without?
Plus there is usually a revision course/ private study coming up to the exams where you won't have to go anywhere but the library.
Good luck as it does actually get harder,not so much at FY level but certainly above!

Bank work as an hca is tiring on top of your other stuff.

how about babysitting? Then you can study whilst they sleep etc. And the nice ones will provide eg a pizza. Could try advertising locally or sign with an agency?

"Quite frankly, I cannot for the life of me imagine why someone who doesn’t know what a deanery is, is commenting on the thread."

Let's put it this way, I know more about deaneries perhaps BEFORE you were even conceived!

Here's something I wrote briefly about the subject over a year ago on 24 Oct 2018 at 16:24 when I said even the whole of Scotland is one single deanery as is Wales and I may as well add as is N. Ireland.

Please be aware a “deanery” can consist of hospitals spread many dozens of miles apart. The whole of Scotland is a deanery as is the whole of Wales. London may be a favourite deanery but London South Thames can mean anything from central London to Brighton; from Woolwich to Worthing; or from Croydon to Canterbury or Margate!

. . .I come from a medical family with as many medics in the immediate circle as you have fingers and thumbs which include junior doctors, GPs, consultants/specialists, medical professor and examiner, etc. And I haven’t included the dentists here.

You obviously didn't read my first two postings on this very thread above when I said my DS (9th doctor in the immediate family) has recently completed his F2. I can tell you in the last 4 years he's been working in deaneries literally stretching from the south west of England all across the south of England right up to the Kent coast in the south east of England. I know because I'm the one who sent him to all these places. He must have moved house/residence at least a dozen times in the last 4 years alone! Two more nephews have since qualified as doctors. So please don't try teaching your grandmother how to suck eggs!

@peteneras

Your family members are lucky to have the support to allow them to move that frequently. The normal student tenancy is 1 year, it might be possible to get a 6m AST but not in popular student areas!

Short term tenancies are generally substantially more expensive than a standard AST (and IIRC lack certainty and security of tenure).

Clearly if one had the means to rent a series of properties as placements were assigned, this would be substantially more convenient, especially if there were a family home close enough to the Med School itself to allow cheap/easy commuting when not on placement.

I would imagine that some placements do have hospital accommodation, and potentially some students manage to 'pass on' affordable and convenient lodgings in the vicinity of others but some hospitals are shockingly difficult to access other than by car and may well suffer from a lack of affordable housing in the vicinity (looking at you Shrewsbury - Telford is walking distance from a station)

Fascinating though the family history of a certain pp is I'm not sure how this helps the OP...

Have you maxed your bank borrowing? It is temporary.

Is car pooling a possibility?
You need to collect from anyone you are giving drives to.
Can you park further out & bike the remaining journey?
Go fund me page or local charity help.
Have you a relative who can lend you the money?

Another suggestion of babysitting here - you can pick and choose and study once they’re asleep.

Just to warn you - this only gets worse when you initially start FY1. Your student loan income ceases, yet you will need to pay GMC fees, indemnity fees (thankfully low for FY1), possibly DBS check fees, yet don't get paid until more than a month after you start!

Medical trials can be a convenient and morally valuable source of income. Most of them are completely harmless - scans, surveys etc. More significant trials pay a lot more and have way more ethical value but are only available in certain locations.