However if you do a PhD it may increase your chances of getting a place on the training programme, but also keeps your options open and then you can easily enter academic or industrial positions. The down side is after doing your PhD and starting your NHS training you'll be on quite a low salary, ~23k at the moment, for your four years of training - so thats 8 years of hard work getting a low wage! A lot to think about. Good luck

You may think that having an MSc or PhD is an advantage - and indeed it can be. However, when you consider that over £100000 will be invested in training you over the 4 years then the last thing any supervisor would want would be to lose that trainee midway through because they were disillusioned at the hard work and thought the job was all about research in an ivory tower. So many PhD applicants have that view in fact and so the first stage of the selection procedure after short-listing will involve an extensive interview where they will try to determine the candidate's commitment and resolve to stay in the training to the end. You see, there is the double effect if anyone drops out, that that remains an unused empty place since no once can replace them - a double tragedy and loss to the profession.

So from your experiences are we talking weeks or months?
Thanks

After the closing date for application for your PhD, how long is it usually until you hear something back?
Thanks