NHS panels for clinical fellow and trust-grade posts are structured and short: a clinical scenario talked through with ABCDE and escalation, a patient-safety question, audit or quality improvement, teaching, and why the NHS. Safe and structured beats impressive.
Also advertised as NHS interview, Trust grade interview, Clinical fellow interview, IMG NHS job interview — the loop is the same, and so is the practice below.
Doctors' interviews are less about what you know than whether you are safe, honest and good to work with. Expect your motivation, a clinical or ethical scenario, a mistake you made and what you did about it, and how you work with nurses and seniors.
International doctors are asked about the time since graduation and how they will adapt to a new health system. A brief, honest, forward-looking answer is what panels want; a defensive or rehearsed one is what they remember.
Each round is run by the interviewer built for it, with its own scoring axes — not one generic interviewer asked to change subject.
A consultant-led panel: the clinical scenario, patient safety, audit and why the NHS.
Scored on Structured answers · Clinical judgement and patient safety · NHS insight and professionalism
A consultant-led panel: the clinical scenario, patient safety, audit and why the NHS.
Scored on Structured answers · Clinical judgement and patient safety · NHS insight and professionalism
A consultant-led panel: the clinical scenario, patient safety, audit and why the NHS.
Scored on Structured answers · Clinical judgement and patient safety · NHS insight and professionalism
Six you can expect, in the register interviewers actually use. Answer them out loud before you read the next section — reading a question and answering one are different skills, and only the second is marked.
The gap between these two is most of your score, and it is easier to see than to be told.
“You are the only doctor on the ward at night and are called about two unwell patients. What do you do?”
A list of every investigation and drug for both patients at once, with no order, no assessment and no mention of calling anyone.
Gather information by phone and prioritise by how sick each sounds, see the sicker patient first with an ABCDE assessment, ask the nurse to start observations and simple measures on the other, escalate early to the registrar or outreach team, and document.
The post-mortem nobody sends you. These are specific to this loop rather than general interview advice.
For NHS Doctor (Clinical Fellow) roles, a general round runs with Dr Hughes — a consultant-led panel: the clinical scenario, patient safety, audit and why the NHS. It is the fastest way to find out which round you actually need to work on. The first session is free.
Practise a NHS Doctor (Clinical Fellow) interview →Before you practise, it is worth reading how the common rounds are marked: tell me about yourself, behavioural questions and STAR, and system design.