Is It Better to be a Doctor in the US or UK

As a matter of fact, preparing for medical school can be fun and at the same time, quite tasking. However, there is really nothing like finally seeing your dreams come true; your dreams of becoming a doctor in this case. Moving on, how much do you know though, about whether it is better to be a doctor in the us or uk? Read on to find out more.

The article below brings you the latest information on whether it is better to be a doctor in the us or uk, is it easier to become a doctor in uk or usa, doctor salary in us vs uk, medical residency uk vs us, uk consultant moving to usa, are doctors underpaid in uk & uk doctor salary. You will also find related posts on how to become a doctor in the us & uk on collegelearner.

If you are planning on being a doctor in the United States or in the United Kingdom, then this is a good article to read. It will help you decide which country is better for you to study medicine. We will compare the two countries based on several factors such as employment prospects, salaries and the overall cost of living so that you can have a better idea whether it’s better to study medicine abroad or stay at home and study in your own country.

Time Required To Become A Doctor

Even though the US and the UK are very different in terms of how they train doctors, your total amount of education will be similar in both countries.

US university students obtain a bachelor’s degree before going on to medical school, which is a graduate program. During their final years of their undergraduate program, they apply to medical school and take the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test). Overall, becoming a doctor in the US can take (on average) between eight and ten years: four years to obtain an undergraduate degree, and four to six years to complete medical school and a residency program.

In the UK, the study of medicine starts at the undergraduate level. Applicants declare a course in medicine when they send their university applications. Upon getting accepted, they spend between four and six years studying core science subjects and learning everyday clinical tasks. At the point they earn their bachelor’s and enter the workforce, they are considered to be junior doctors.

After completing their undergraduate education, UK medical students take two “foundation years,” reinforcing what they have learned in university in a professional environment. This is considered to be a continuation of their education although it is not in a university environment. Finally, they may spend between four and eight years learning a specialization like obstetrics or surgery. These studies are completed in clinics and/or hospitals. This means that becoming a doctor in the UK takes between six and twelve years, depending on whether a junior doctor chooses to pursue a complex specialization.

Coursework And Exam Requirements

The subjects US students study vary: earning a “pre-medicine” degree is not necessarily required to qualify for medical school. In fact, medical students can and do major in everything from mathematics to physics, even music! However, according to the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), the majority (53%) of those who matriculate into medical school majored in biological sciences fields.1 This includes dedicated pre-medicine programs, anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, and many more. It should be noted that students who wish to apply to a US medical school do not have to obtain their bachelor’s degree in the US, but they must complete one first.

One other requirement to enter medical school in the US is the MCAT. The following is the AAMC (the body which administers the test) description:

“The Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®), developed and administered by the AAMC, is a standardized, multiple-choice examination created to help medical school admissions offices assess your problem solving, critical thinking, and knowledge of natural, behavioral, and social science concepts and principles prerequisite to the study of medicine.” (“Taking the MCAT”)

As we mentioned before, medicine in the UK is an undergraduate program that students enter after high school. Students apply through the general UCAS application site, which all UK university applicants use. They will be interviewed and either granted a conditional offer or offered admission outright. After this, each student will be required to sit for either A-level exams or something equally rigorous, like the IB, and obtain high marks in order to hold their place.

Upon entering their program, students can pick a focus, such as anesthetics or pathology. They will be exposed to multiple specialties to get a sense of what they are good at and what they are interested in. Finally, general professional and academic skills (such as group work and essay skills) are emphasized a bit earlier than in the US.

There is a second option for those who wish to study a subject more in-depth. Students may obtain an undergraduate bachelor’s degree with honors in biochemistry, medical science, or a similar field in three years. After this, they can apply to study Graduate Entry Medicine. This is a four-year degree with a similar structure to the U.S. system: it requires two years of course work and two years of rotations.

Is It Easier to Become a Doctor in UK or USA

MEDICAL SCHOOL: THE US OR THE UK?
~6 Minutes / ~1181 Words
Last Updated Dec 12, 2020
The US and the UK both have excellent medical school programs. While they differ a bit in structure, the time it takes to become a doctor is similar in either country.

When deciding where you want to study, a few factors are worth considering. How do you want to balance your studies in the classroom and in a clinical setting? Do you want to work in one place and get familiar with the staff over a period of years? Or would you rather get more immediate professional experience and work in several different places?

Are you just starting to think about college and medical school? We want to help! Search for pre-med programs and keep track of your applications with Occam’s new app, Vitae.Me (download here on iOS and Android)!

Professional Development Requirements

During the four years of medical school in the US, the first two years will be primarily spent in the classroom. At the end of the first two years, students will take an assessment test, which will be used for residency placement. During the last two years of medical school, students will be primarily engaged in clinical duties and making rounds within multiple departments in the hospital. Residents are expected to work long hours as they learn from seasoned physicians.

Towards the end of medical school, students will apply and interview for residency programs, which are essentially a medical student’s first job in the field. Some specialties (i.e. dermatology and orthopedics) are more competitive than others due to their lifestyle and compensation benefits. Students match at different residency programs through a combination of listing their top choices, test scores, and interviews.

The first two years after earning the undergraduate degree in the UK are similar to the U.S., with two years of school and three years of clinical rotations in wards. Upon graduation, students attend a two-year program at a foundation school. Medical school graduates are not allowed to practice medicine until this is complete. Students complete an online application form, submit test scores and grades, and are matched similarly to the U.S. system. UK residencies are paid positions, just as in the US.

Upon completion of the foundation program, students can complete two 18-month training rotations and practice medicine independently as a general practitioner. Unlike US students, who usually stay at one hospital, UK junior doctors tend to work in several different clinics to get exposure to different environments.

Both the US and the UK have excellent medical education programs. Ultimately, a student’s learning style will determine where they will have the most success, and perhaps more importantly, enjoy their education.

If you are just starting your journey towards medical school and want the college applications process to be a smoother, less stressful one, download Occam’s Vitae.Me app, which will help you find the perfect pre-med programs, keep track of application-related tasks, and remind you of deadlines. Download here on iOS and Android today.

UK Doctor Salary

Doctors in training
As a doctor in training you’ll earn a basic salary, plus pay for any hours over 40 per week, a 37 per cent enhancement for working nights, a weekend allowance for any work at the weekend, an availability allowance if you are required to be available on-call, and other potential pay premia.

In Foundation training, you will earn a basic salary of £28,243 to £32,691 (from 1 April 2020).

If you’re a doctor starting your specialist training in 2020 your basic salary will be £38,694 to £49,036.

Specialty doctors
If you’re working as a specialty doctor you’ll earn a basic salary of £41,158 to £76,751.

Consultants
As a consultant from 1 April 2020, you’ll earn a basic salary of £82,096 to £110,683 per year, depending on the length of your service. You may apply for local and national Clinical Excellence Awards. This is a competitive process which takes into account work that you do over and above delivering your basic job requirements. In addition, if you take on extra responsibilities, for example in management or education, you may expect to be paid more.

Consultants can also supplement their salary by working in private practice if they wish. The opportunities available will depend on their specialty areas and the time they wish to spend on this outside of their NHS contracted hours.

General practitioners
There are two contractual options for GPs. They can be:

1) independent contractors who are in charge of running their own practices as business either alone or in partnerships. They have autonomy in how services are delivered according to their contract with the Clinical Commissioning Group. In England, these GPs have increasing responsibility for the commissioning of hospital services for the community

2) salaried GPs who are employees of independent contractor practices or directly employed by primary care organisations. From 1 April 2020, the pay range for salaried GPs is £60,455 to £91,228.

Medical Residency UK vs US

The similarities between UK and American medicine are greater than the differences but not quite as interesting. This article will describe the US medical education system, some of the differences between UK general practice and US family medicine, US health insurance and doctors’ compensation, and discuss some of the shortcomings and advantages when compared to the UK system.

American children finish high school at 17 or 18 years old. They get a diploma rather than A and O levels. Only those planning on further education take national exams and most of these are general rather than subject specific. Those who become doctors complete a 4-year general programme to get a Bachelor of Arts or Sciences (BA or BS) prior to attending medical school, which is a further 4 years including 2 years of classroom sciences and 2 years of ward-based training in most of the specialties. They graduate with the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree at 25 or more years old.

During and after medical school, US doctors (and doctors emigrating to the US) take the US Medical Licensure Exam (USMLE) in three parts. During the 4th year of medical school they apply to their desired residency training programmes and learn their assignment for the next 1–6 years at ‘Match Day’. Any candidates not selected participate in a mad scramble for unfilled posts. Few doctors start or end a programme at any time other than 1 July of each year and in most residency programmes a doctor remains in the same programme until completion, performing most training at the same hospital or complex of hospitals in one town.

However, there are some pyramid systems. Some specialties such as anaesthesia otolaryngology (ENT) or urology do not provide an integral post-graduate year 1 (PGY-1) or internship so applicants are expected to do a ‘categorical’ or surgical internship prior to PGY-2 and onward in the final specialty. There are also those who change their minds or are put out of a programme for educational or other reasons. These doctors — once any suitability to practice issues are resolved — can apply to other specialty residencies and hope to have some of their prior training accepted in the new programme.

Prior to any ‘registration’ — called licensure and offered by the individual states so requirements vary — doctors must complete a minimum of 2 years of postgraduate (residency) training (except those already licensed under older laws). Residency length varies from 3 years — PGY-1, 2, and 3 — for family medicine, internal (general) medicine, or paediatrics, up to 5–6 years for general surgery. Sub-specialties such as transplantation surgery may involve 6 years general surgery, a 2- to 3-year chest surgery fellowship followed by 3 or more years of transplant surgery fellowship. Medical subspecialty training such as nephrology or gastroenterology is obtained through fellowships following internal medicine or paediatric residencies.

Doctors take exams after finishing their residency to become accredited by the board of their specialty. Some of these exams are multiple choice questions, while others include oral examinations or evaluation of patient charts or operative notes. In some specialties the final board exams cannot be taken until the doctor has completed a certain number and variety of surgical procedures. In most specialties doctors repeat the exams every few years — every 6–7 years for family medicine.

Family medicine is the closest thing to general practice in the US. The 3-year residency is usually performed with no moving, the same classmates, patients, hospital (except for away rotations), and consultants. The trainers are the hospital’s consultants and dedicated family medicine doctors with a practice attached to the training hospital who are also family medicine hospital consultants (qualified to care for inpatients and deliver babies). Training includes 10 months with adult inpatients, including 3 months in an intensive care unit (ICU) or coronary care unit, 7 months with paediatrics inpatients including neonatal ICU, and 4 months in obstetrics and gynaecology. These courses are not in consecutive 6 month blocks but in 1- or 2-month rotations spread throughout the 3 years so the resident has training with increasing responsibility. They also complete between 0.5 to 2 months each of surgery, outpatient cardiology, dermatology, orthopaedics, psychiatry and other specialties.

During the 3 years the trainee conducts family medicine surgeries at the training programme’s group practice close to (or in) the hospital with a panel of families (number increasing each year) assigned to them (but seeing the other doctors in practice when the trainee is not available). For the 1st year, this is one (half-day) surgery per week; the 2nd year three surgeries per week; and in the final year one half-day surgery every weekday. The trainee is precepted during these surgeries by rotating members of the family medicine teaching staff.

There are 7 hours a week of protected teaching time; attendance is mandatory and patient care is never allowed to prevent attendance. Some residency programmes are at hospitals or medical centres with other residency programmes, and in this case some residents complete group training, whereas other residents are on their own at a smaller hospital with (usually) a lower intensity ICU experience. The residents perform at least 50 normal vaginal deliveries and are qualified to deliver babies when they finish, but must maintain this skill to obtain permission to deliver babies at any given hospital where they eventually work.

While many family medicine doctors give up delivering babies, most of them (although this number is dropping) provide hospital care to their patients when needed. There is a move to concentrate this work in hired hospitalists (sometimes not family medicine doctors) or by having one doctor in turn from a group practice do all the hospital care for a week or 2 weeks.

A typical family doctor has surgeries 9–12 am and 1–5 pm and visits patients in hospital (if any) once or twice daily, usually before/after the day of surgeries. Appointments are 15 minutes long (plus urgent overbookings) and a nurse assistant prepares patients by assessing blood pressure, weight, or other vitals and preparation before hand. The surgery has two to three exam rooms per doctor and patients wait inside, undressed if appropriate, while the doctor rotates through the rooms. More serious discussions may occur in the doctor’s office.

There are almost no home visits. Insurance companies will not pay for a home visit unless the patient is chronically unable to leave the home. Those who are severely ill — in UK practice ‘too ill to come into the surgery’ — are thought to need evaluation at the emergency room (ER) since they may need admission or acute tests. They can be seen by an emergency medicine doctor or, by arrangement, their family doctor (after office hours) or the doctor on call for their doctor.

Family doctors cover out-of-hours in many ways. They are deemed to have a responsibility to their patients but the availability of ER care keeps this from being a medicolegal responsibility. Some doctors even delegate out-of-hours care to freestanding urgent care centres. Doctors with admitting privileges at a hospital have a duty to the hospital to cover their patients’ hospital care. This frequently means they have to admit those deemed needing care by ER staff, and rotate coverage of admissions for patients with no doctor (or no doctor with hospital admitting privileges). In ERs with doctors on duty the ER doctor may admit initially, but the family doctor assumes care in the morning. ‘On call’ also means fielding patient telephone calls. Coverage is usually shared with other doctors either in the same group or across groups and only rarely are singlehanded doctors personally available to their patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Doctors earn money for the specific work they do and there is a great deal of documentation for each consultation or hospital care encounter and some thinking involved in deciding the level of care provided and the diagnosis treated (to ensure it is covered by the insurer). Errors are penalised by underpayment or fines if overcharging is detected. This data, either paper or electronic, is used by the (multiple) insurance companies to pay the doctors. While this is private practice, unless the insurer is the government (Medicare or Medicaid), the insurance companies pressure doctors to accept lower fees if they wish to be permitted to have the insurer’s covered patients attend at their surgery and the fees are lower than the doctors would prefer to charge, and, relatively, it is not as lucrative as UK private practice.

US medical economics is in flux in comparison to the NHS. It still has economic features of a purely capitalist driven system — some specialties get much better pay — but the only truly private practice (paid for by the patient) is infertility and cosmetic surgery care.

Waiting times are much less than in the NHS for most procedures and consultants if the patient has insurance accepted by the consultant or will pay cash ahead of time, but there is still a slight wait (a few weeks for non-urgent appointments in most areas) to see consultants — presumably because medicine in the US is no longer so lucrative that there is a relative surplus of specialists (due to insurance companies’ downward pressure on fees). For patients without insurance, or whose lower paying insurance coverage is not accepted by the consultant, the wait may be years until a consultant, if any, providing charity procedures or appointments has an opening in that schedule.

Forty-five million (or about 20%) of Americans are uninsured. This means that if they attend a doctor’s surgery they will be charged $40–200 (or more) for the visit, will have to pay full price for any prescriptions, and if hospitalised will have large hospital bills. They are often billed at a higher rate than the insurance company will pay for the same type of care. This group overlaps with the very poor — some of this group would qualify for low income health insurance administered by each state (Medicaid) if they were aware and knew how to apply — and with those who are able to afford health insurance but opt not to purchase it. Affordability is relative: health insurance for a healthy family of four would cost about $4000–6000 a year with no coverage of pregnancies, and those paying this much in rent or earning only $20 000 a year, might feel that is too much to pay.

Personally, at my income level, I would ensure that my children and I had health coverage to avoid losing my entire retirement savings with one illness or injury. Medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the US and it is a common sight at petrol stations to see a donation box marked ‘Help Jimmy get his liver transplant’ and for churches to hold fundraisers to pay for surgery for one of their parishioners.

There are some stark and shocking differences between the UK and American healthcare systems. In the US, 45 million uninsured people play an ugly lottery where a sudden illness or injury may cost them a small or large fortune that they will have to pay off through bankruptcy or discharge over the rest of their lives. In the UK, the time from a patient determining with their GP that a treatment or procedure is the right one for the patient’s problem may be followed by months of waiting for the consultant’s/specialist’s appointment and agreement and then more months until actually undergoing the needed procedure. Bed shortages, cancelled appointments or shifts, and any inability on the patient’s part to attend a consultation or surgery date can further lengthen this delay. If a scarce radiological procedure is required prior to the surgery this can double the wait. There are many other less concerning differences that it may be helpful or interesting to the UK and American medical community to compare and consider, but my ultimate conclusion is that the capitalist effect on American medical care of less government control and much more money, directed as patients and/or their insurers choose, in order to improve the care provided, leaves those Americans able to afford American medical care better off than the NHS patient. The NHS providing care for all may have a line for certain treatments but everyone in Britain is able to get into that line and no one is excluded from needed medical care. Therefore, the care provided by the NHS is much better than that received by the many Americans outside the health insurance system.

UK Consultant Moving to USA

A UK doctor can work in the US if they meet certain criteria and pass certain, very difficult, exams. Once all the exams are completed, you are given an ECFMG certificate, meaning you can practice in the US.

Statue Of Liberty, New York, Ny, Nyc, New York City
Introduction
Although UK doctors can move to the US, it is by no means a straightforward process.

It requires a lot of dedication and hard work.

You need to pass basic science exams like the USMLE Step 1, clinical exams like Step 2 as well as gain experience in the US via electives, get letters of recommendations and so on and so on.

The list of things you have to do is endless.

However, you must understand everything if you want to work in the US. The competition for residency places is incredibly high and as an international medical graduate (IMG), you stand an even worse chance.

But don’t worry, this article will give you all the information you need.

First, though, you need to understand a few commonly used terms.

USMLE Explanation
The USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) is a set of exams taken by every doctor that wants to enter the US. they are notoriously challenging and are one of the main reasons international doctors cannot go to the US.

I provide a more detailed overview of the exams here.

IMG and FMG Explanation
Throughout this article, there is reference to IMGs (short for International Medical Graduates).

This is essentially anyone who has graduated from medical school in a country outside of the US and also includes US citizens who attended medical school outside the US (e.g. the Caribbean). The latter are called US IMGs.

IMGs are sometimes referred to as FMGs (short for Foreign Medical Graduate). These are the same thing.

ECFMG Explanation
The ECFMG (Educational Commission For Foreign Medical Graduates) is a certificate that IMGs get when they are eligible to apply to the match.

If you can get the certificate, it means you are deemed good enough to be a doctor in the US.

The requirements needed to get an ECFMG certificate are given below.

ERAS Explanation
The ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service) is an online service which allows information like examination transcripts, personal statements and letters of recommendations to be kept and sent to residency programs.

It is the US equivalent of UCAS or Oriel.

Residency Explanation
Residency is the equivalent of being a registrar in the UK. There is no F1 or F2 post in the US as they go straight into their specialities after medical school.

After residency, doctors are known as attendings.

An attending is the equivalent of a consultant.

Match Explanation
The match is when US medical students find out if they have a place to work.

It is when they “match” into their residency positions – essentially a results day.

What Is Required to Move to the US?
To move to the US, there are a few things which are needed no matter which country you are coming from.

Here is a brief list of the requirements which we will go into more depth later:

Complete a medical degree at a recognised medical school (on the World Directory of Medical Schools)
Pass USMLE Step 1, 2 and 3 (step 2 must be taken in the US)
Go to the US and gain clinical experience (when in the final year of medical school)
Succeed in getting an ECFMG certificate (achieved after the above is complete)
Get letters of recommendations (ideally from US doctors)
Attain a valid visa or green card
Have approximately $15,000 in cash
There is no way a doctor can move to the US without taking the USMLE exams. You have to take them.

Below I have some common questions that people ask when discussing this topic.

How Long Does it Take?
The whole process of moving to the US would take up to 2 years depending on when you do it. If you pick a bad time to start the process it could potentially take up to 3 years.

How Much Does it Cost?
All in all, it costs about $15,000 to move to the US.

The exams themselves cost about $1000 each, while the number of times you have to go to the US as well as the resources you have to use all end up adding up.

It may seem like a lot, but it is an investment.

Doctors in the US earn much more than UK doctors, and so even though $15,000 is a lot right now, when you are earning upwards of $200,000 a year, you probably won’t regret your decision.