Qualification and the year as a preregistration house officer.

Qualification as a bachelor of medicine and surgery (MB BS or equivalent) after five or six years is not the end but a beginning. Now at last you can learn all the time by doing, a process which continues throughout life: now you are a medical practitioner and can earn your own living. Examinations are not finished and uncertainties about the future are no longer speculations but realities, but at least your first foot is on the ladder. The first rungs are the same for everyone-the preregistration house officer posts, six months in medicine and six months in surgery (or, in one experimental scheme, four months each in medicine, surgery, and general practice). These posts must be satisfactorily completed under supervision before a doctor can be fully (rather than provisionally) registered with the General Medical Council and be formally recognised as entitled to embark on postgraduate training. There are preregistration house officer posts in all medium sized and large general hospitals in the United Kingdom. Whatever else you do or do not do, it is important to complete preregistration posts at the appointed time. It is permissible but most unwise on passing the final MB to wander off to the Himalayas for transcendental meditation or even to East Cheam to have a baby. Returning after a break to complete preregistration house officer training is not easy and part time completion of the requirements is almost impossible.