How to apply for Medicine and Surgery with a Gateway Year

Applicants who have a disability or medical condition that might impact on their fitness to practise should provide details on their UCAS application. Disclosed disabilities or medical conditions are not taken into account during the selection process. If successful after interview, the applicant will be assessed by an Occupational Health professional to determine whether they are fit to practise or if there are reasonable adjustments that Lancaster Medical School should make to allow the applicant to study medicine successfully.

Any offer of a place to study medicine at Lancaster Medical School is conditional upon a satisfactory assessment of fitness to train from the Occupational Health Department (OHD) at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust (UHMFBT). You will be assessed initially through a health questionnaire before registration and then through follow-up appointments with the OHD. This health screening programme assesses the following: absence of infection with communicable diseases; immunisation status; functional capacity and ability to achieve the outcomes of Tomorrow’s Doctors.

The standards are defined by the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Department of Health (DH). Read further guidance for potential applicants (PDF).

Infection and immunisation: All students will be tested for and/or immunised against a range of infectious diseases before any patient contact will be permitted.

Doctors are expected to “be honest and open and act with integrity” at all times (Duties of a Doctor).

Therefore, probity is taken extremely seriously during the admissions process for our medical degree programme. Applicants are advised to ensure that their UCAS application form has been completed fully, honestly and without omissions. Lancaster Medical School reserves the right to reject any applicant who is found to have been dishonest at any stage of their application.

Applicants should note that all medical students are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Any criminal convictions, reprimands, warnings, cautions or fixed penalty notices should be declared on the UCAS application form and details provided, if the applicant attends for interview. This information is not taken into account during the selection process and is only considered after interview. If successful at interview, the circumstances of the incident will be considered by Lancaster Medical School Fitness to Practise panel and a judgement made as to whether it impacts on the applicant’s fitness to practise. Only those who are deemed fit to practise will be admitted onto the medical degree programme; applicants may be subject to further requirements to confirm their fitness to practise.

In most instances, minor offences do not bar entry to medical training or clinical practice. More details can be found in the GMC – Medical students: Professional Values and Fitness to Practise site.

This information is collected in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. For unsuccessful applicants, data related to any declared criminal convictions will be deleted and removed from our admissions system by the end of the relevant admissions period; if they apply before 15th October, any data will be deleted before the end of October in the following year (unless they apply for deferred entry, in which case the data may be retained for a further 12 months before deletion). Successful applicants, who become students, will have any declared criminal conviction information retained for the duration of their studies. This information will be securely deleted and removed from our systems within six months of the student graduating or terminating their studies.

All information on applicant declared criminal convictions will be stored securely within University systems and will only be accessed by appropriate University staff. To learn more about how the University ensures the security of personal information please refer to the University’s Information Security Policy.

GDPR grants individuals certain rights in relation to their own personal data. For more information on these rights and how they have been embedded at Lancaster University, please refer to the Rights of the Data Subject page on the University website.

For more information about how the University uses student and applicant data, please visit the Student Privacy Notice on the University’s website.

Please note: Applicants who fail to disclose information that subsequently comes to light through their enhanced DBS check will be subject to Fitness to Practise procedures and may be excluded from the degree programme on the basis of lack of probity. Please note that spent criminal convictions, cautions, warnings and reprimands that would not normally appear on your criminal record may be disclosed through an enhanced DBS check.

As a medical student, you will be expected to behave in a professional manner from the very outset of your medical degree programme. Medical students are expected to strive for high standards in both their professional training and their personal lives. This section aims to provide some guidance about the professional behaviour expected of medical students. Potential applicants should ensure that they would be willing and able to agree to the expected standards of behaviour before applying to study at Lancaster Medical School.

During your medical degree, much of your training will take place in a clinical environment and will involve extensive patient contact. Moreover, as a medical graduate, you will be entitled to preliminary registration with the General Medical Council and to work as a Foundation Year doctor.

Therefore, medical students are expected to act in accordance with the standards of professional behaviour as outlined by the General Medical Council in Good Medical Practice and Duties of a Doctor. The General Medical Council has also published guidance specifically about medical student professional behaviour and fitness to practice.

Lancaster University has a duty of care to ensure that no member of the public comes to any harm as a consequence of contact with Lancaster Medical School medical students during their training. To remind students of their responsibilities and the expected standards of behaviour, at the beginning of each academic year, Lancaster Medical School requires all medical students to agree to conditions of training‌. Potential applicants should read these conditions of training carefully and ensure that they are willing and able to agree to them before accepting an offer from Lancaster Medical School.

In addition to maintaining certain standards of conduct during their professional training, medical students must also ensure that their behaviour outside of the clinical environment does not negatively impact on their fitness to practice; they must not bring the profession or the medical school into disrepute through their behaviour in their professional or their personal lives.