How long is the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score valid?

Any doctor who has completed his MBBS and also passed IELTS is eligible for taking the PLAB exams. If you haven't finished your internship (Compulsory House Officer's post) you will be eligible only for HO jobs for the first year after the PLAB II..

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At the minute the only way is with BCL, do ask them for more info. We can help you after they have given exemption by helping you finding jobs and clinical attachments which they dont do.

I have not finished my internship, can I do the PLAB ?

Since 4th July 2000 the pattern for the step I has changed. Negative marking has been scrapped and the MCQ's (multiple choice questions) and CPS (clinical problem solving) and picture test have been replaced by the EMQ's (Extended Matching Questions). More about it in PLAB I & PLAB II

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If YB has places in it's houses, you are welcome to stay on a "loan lodge scheme" until your stay for the second attempt begins (which is free), however, if we cannot accommodate you, you will be able to find enough places for around Stg 45 per week in East Ham or where your clinical attachment is. Getting a clinical attachment is really important especially if you have failed the exam. That way you are setting up a job before you pass the exam.

     

Normally 2-6 mths.
    

What is meant by"Declaration & Undertaking regarding phone calls" in the contract supplied by Y.B.E.S?

This is to be signed by candidate who is taking sponsorship from us.It is provided with our contract.This is only to prevent misuse of telephone lines in our houses in UK.According to this undertaking candidates can receive phone calls from their family and friends but they can not make outgoing phonecalls fron our houses.

You are allowed to take only 300 pounds as cash and the rest as TC . Your total allowance is 3000 $ . $500 can be taken as cash (roughly 300 pounds) the rest have to be as travellers cheques. Cashing TC's at Llyods bank, East Ham is free. Other places give that facility free as well.

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Is it neccessary that a candidate should have an account with HSBC to be a sponsored candidate with PLABMASTER. Also is it neccessary that one has a letter from the manager from where they maintain their bank account to give an introductory letter to the HSBC London branch. As opening an account in India and getting the Manager to give the introductory letter is becoming difficult day by day. As no doctors will always be in Eastham (e.g. clinical attachments / jobs out of London). Can we not have accounts in any other banks (e.g. SBI, ICICI, Citi bank, etc.)? They have offices in UK.

Opening an account with the HSBC (London) bank is just another facility we are adding no cost to the candidate. We think moving with Travellers Cheques and cash in UK is not a clever thing, having a bank account makes sense.

You have to see things from the UK bankers perspective first. PLAB doctor is a visitor to the UK. He/She is unemployed. UK banks are not interested in opening bank accounts for them. Why should they? And besides, after 9/11 they have the other hassle of terrorism and drug money laundering and the govt regulations and clamping down on this aspect.
We had negotiated with Barclays bank 6 years ago, persuaded them after months of negotiations and then they opened accounts for doctors for PLAB. After 9/11 they shut that system.
We have been negotiating with HSBC on and off for a year and more intensely last few months and they have relented as they have reasons to be nice to YBES. However they have found this answer, and specified requirements, intro letter from banks, YBES intro, and GMC letter stating east ham address. We now cannot ask them any more can we?

SBI, Bank of Baroda, Maharashtra bank have all been approached, however we found all of them to be reluctant to have an open mind and do anything different from what they have been doing for all these years. You cannot forget that they have been employed in a socialist frame of mind and their mind set fixed. We get promises of help, and we send doctors to one of these banks and then the doctors are refused help last minute. We have always painted them a business picture, telling them how important is to be nice to these doctors, as they are rich people of tomorrow!

This facility is available to all those doing the 2 week course or sponsorship and that has got something to do with the fact that we have to vouch that we know the candidate for more than 6 months. It is not important what nationality the students is, we have opened bank accounts for Pakistani, Srilankan, Phillipino as well as Canadian doctors. All that we have to insist is that there is an original introduction letter by the home country HSBC bank manager vouching the registered home address of the doctor in his home country. Without HSBC account at home, we are helpless. If you don’t have a proper introduction letter by the HSBC manager at home, you can have a bank statement addressed to you at your home address, that is good enough.

Travel by tube from Heathrow, London. Underground (called the "tube" and not "railway" which refers to British railway, BR) runs along different "lines" which criss-cross the whole city, especially the central area. Most of it is more than 100 feet deep and is served by escalator-stairs. In parts it is so deep, your ears pop when descending or coming out! For our purpose of reaching East Ham, you are concerned with "jubilee" line and "district line".

Heathrow is served by only one line, and there is only one platform to both come and go, a circular sort of route. A single fare to East Ham costs £3.40. To come to East Ham, you need to change to district line which you could do at either Earls court or Hammersmith. But Hammersmith is a better option as you do not have to change platform unlike Earls Court. From Heathrow airport to Hammersmith is approximately 50 minutes and From there to East Ham station is around 70 minutes. The order of stations Before East Ham is Plaistow - UptonPark - East Ham. Step out of East Ham station and in 10 feets is "Petchey Car" the cab company. Most distances in East Ham will be reached within £3.
       

You could work in the UK for 5 years without any problem. The 5 year "permit free" training begins from the day you begin
employment, either paid or even unpaid job. "Clinical attachment" is not a job,hence is free of this 5 year period.

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Your first job gives you a visa for a year. Sometimes jobs can be for 2 years (medical/surgical rotations) or even longer (psychiatry-4 years) and your visa will be stamped for that period.

On completion of 4 years, your fifth year extension often depends on a region's dean certifying that your progress has been satisfactory and that you are doing something special (like research or registrar's job) and that year's extension is simple. Sometimes you may get a registrars job which requires the visa to be extended for upto 7 years, and that is done with the deans recommendation. This is exceptional not the rule.

If you want to settle permanently in the UK, you need a non training job, such as a consultant or a staff grade or an associate specialist. The last two jobs are typically given in a place where you have worked before and they like you and they have a need for a permanent person.
     

After passing part II you wait in London or elsewhere to get jobs, doing clinical attachment. I wont really advise you to return home and apply for jobs from there, that would not be practical. Often interview calls come as telephone calls. And the interview may be tomorrow!

Lodging with in UK typically costs Stg 50 per week.

Staying on in UK (permanent) is possible if you take a permanent job such a staff grade or consultant. A registrar would have to come back in 5 -7 years. May be after the current spate of sessions we have in Lon i can write more on that aspect.
         

Yes the person can renew his passport 10days before the date of expiry in UK. It costs around stg. 20.

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Most hospitals have their own houses in the campus or just outside. Married accommodation is typically houses with 2-3 bedrooms or some hospitals have flats with 2-3 bedrooms. Single accommodation is available in most hospitals and you have your own room but have to share kitchen and toilet/bath with 3 others. In the good old days, single rooms would be free and still are in some remote district general hospitals, but more and more hospitals are charging a small sum (around £100) to have a room.

Houses in the UK are extremely stereotype and the local council dictates a lot. You cannot paint the house a colour of your choice unless you first clear it with the council. Most houses are gray or brick colour and entire streets look the same, very easy to get lost! Typically a house will cost you £500 pm + local taxes and heating and electricity which all come to another £100 per month. Life can be a bit more expensive in London than outside London.

Houses cost around £80,000 -£100,000 in cheap parts of London (read East Ham) and could go twice that sum or more in richer parts such as Finchley or Wimbledon. A same sized house will cost around 70% of this price in other cities such as Mancheste or Liverpool. Housing in proper central London is really prohibitively expensive and a flat with 2 bedrooms facing the Thames river will cost more than quarter million pounds.

Rented houses will have washing machines and even vacuum cleaners and even cutlery included in the price, though not dishwashers.

Basically if you are married you will have to have such an accomodation and that means an expense of atleast £500-£600 pm. If you think that is a lot, wait until we tell you about looking after a kid in a nursery !
     

English weather is very fickle. There have been days when one can experience warm sunshine in the morning upto 15-18 degrees C which becomes cold to 4 degrees by night made worse by the "wind chill factor" - blowing winds. It could rain as well and indeed make your dress plan go awry. To the extent that they wish for a good day as their greeting. In India you have taken that for granted!

Broadly, it is summer between end May and late September of each year. The temperature is most in June and July and most August. Each year, some days will be 30C hot and as the houses are designed to conserve heat rather than losing it (no cross ventilation), it results in real tormenting time. People spontaneously jump in the water fountain in Trafalgar square in herds! In the summer it is light by 4.30 in the morning (even earlier in Scotland) and will be light until 9-10 pm.

UK does not have monsoon season like India. April till June may have showers but they are never so horrible to require to take a day off. Children have to depend on other excuses to take a holiday. It may rain in winter as well. By and large the rains will be less than an hour or two at a time and only rarely longer Winter is mainly from October until April-May. Worst in Jan and Feb. In the winter, temperatures hoover between 2 and 10 degrees C. Rains and wind make life miserable. It is dark even at 7 am and by 5 pm again. Sun may not shine for days on end and life is really miserable. Hospitals are always at mediterranean temperatures, around 29-30 degrees C at all times of the year. Mostly for patients. You could easily move in corridors in your OT dress and not be cold. Maternity wings are even hotter. Heating your house is an expensive business and if one is paying the bill they keep temperatures upto 23degrees C.

Clear cloudless skies are a rarity, no wonder astrology did not develop in the part of the world. In your first days, you are tempted to use woollen clothings and innerwear, while within a year or so, you will get used to the weather. A big overcoat
(woollen) often suffices. A simple way boys use is to wear 2-3 layers of clothings which traps air and keeps them warm. Girls find this advice less acceptable for obvious cosmetic reasons. Local teenagers still mini skirts in winter (though they need to smoke to keep atleast some part of themselves warm!)

Scotland is 500- 700 miles north of London and has much more colder times than south such as London and further south, Southampton. Manchester is midway and west and has a wetter weather than most other areas.
    

We have limited number of seats for sponsorship programme and registering with as early is a good idea. In all we have 8 houses under our control and we accept 60 students for full sponsorship.

As soon as you pass the PLAB-part I, send off your application to the GMC, courier it and make a note of the date it was received by them. Ask your friends to chase with the GMC about the allotted date.

Do send your application for sponsorship with the DD to us in India and your name will be put on the waiting list. Once you have confirmed your date for the PLAB-OSCE, email us and send us the admit card and we will confirm your seat and get your contract in place.

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Part II is a clinical examination and what is tested are your clinical skills nad bedside manners. There is no theory check and discussions is more important than reading any books or what. The course teaches what we call 5 minute medicine, tuning you to the demands of the examination. Whilst in India, go through the McLeods book or Hutchinsons book of clinical medicine and that will tell you the basics of the examination skills.

Two indian students of ours have written books, both are quite good. Jyothi Kulkarni is probably the best of the lot.

Una Coales is quite unrealistic, it is full of Xrays and ECG's and those bits are not relevant at all, not to the extent suggested.

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• Download application form from www.ukinindia.com
• Don’t volunteer information – answer precisely what is asked.
• Never disclose incorrect information.
• See that you have around 3-5 coloured passport-sized pictures, less than 6 months old against a WHITE BACKGROUND or you’ll be sent away for those. Other colour backgrounds won’t do.
• Carry previous passports as well – previous trip to U.K./Europe makes things easier
• Have the latest bank statements with you – not more than two days old, show at least 1.5 lakhs Indian rupees per person visiting the U.K.
• Have all original documents with you -
  - Passport in original      - registration      - IELTS score

       - Medical degree           - Plab I mark sheet

       - Internship                    - Plab -II admit card

Visa fee-approx. Rs.3, 150/- per person.
Be pleasant – they’re only trying to help – the new VSF services are professional and customer–caring. Don’t work yourself up.
The visa will be issued only 24 hrs later – be prepared to stay in the city if you are a non-resident for at least 2 days.