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Student Life

Jumping the queue

BMJ 2005; 330 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.050134 (Published 01 January 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;330:050134
  1. Kate Mandeville, fourth year medical student1
  1. 1Imperial College, London

Should medical students get preferential treatment in the NHS? Kate Mandeville considers the arguments for and against

I got a fish bone stuck in my oesophagus the other day. So I went along to the emergency department, was seen within an hour, and after much effort to juggle the burgeoning waiting list, was fitted into the gastroscopy list for the next morning. Perhaps this is due to a particularly efficient unit at my hospital, or the result of recent funding increases in the NHS. But it did make me wonder if the fact I said that I was a medical student had any influence over the speed doctors attended to me.

Taking care of our own

Many of my friends, when faced with a medical problem of their own, have made a trip to the relevant department. Here, they have invariably received prompt treatment by staff keen to help one of their own students.

One friend, after a particularly exuberant night out, visited our hospital genitourinary medicine clinic. At the reception, he mentioned that he was a medical student, and was immediately swept past hordes of other patients, fast tracked for investigations, and received reassurance in a third of the usual time. Another friend, in a similar position to me with an irritating celery particle wedged by her tonsils, popped into the ear, nose, and throat department between her clinics and had it whipped out with the aid of a flexible nasal endoscope, bypassing other patients waiting outside.

“Before we press on - are we sure he's a doctor?”

Perks of the job

Don't get me wrong--I enjoy this privilege and long may it continue until I can afford private medical insurance. After all, we are going to be doctors ourselves in a few short years, and by it you feel included in “the family.”

Medical school is challenging, …

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