Unfair specialty recruitment practices threaten the NHS’s future workforce
Jemima Sneddon and Alexander Mafi argue that last minute changes to specialty training recruitment criteria are creating unfair and inappropriate assessments of doctors applying for training posts As 2025 specialty training application offers approach, resident doctors in the UK are reaching the conclusion of what is likely to be the most competitive round of recruitment yet. For those applying it has been alarming to discover that recruiting organisations have yet again made unfair and late changes to interview scoring criteria.1 These changes not only threaten widening participation and the fairness of the process, but raise serious questions about the skill set and qualities the NHS values in its future clinical workforce. The internal medicine training (IMT) recruitment programme announced changes to the scoring system for the 2025 intake with less than a year’s notice and confirmed the final scoring system online just weeks before the application deadline.1 This year’s applicants
