General Surgery

Three stations of 10 minutes each, as published for 2026: the Clinical Station, the Management Station and the Professional Development Station. Your mock interviews follow the same three stations, scored as one interview.

No format change has been announced. Extra General Surgery ST3 posts start from February 2027, offered from existing reserve lists since August 2026. The October 2026 General Surgery curriculum adds complications of bariatric surgery to its critical conditions, the emergencies every general surgeon must manage. We check every specialty against each year's official guidance when it is published.

NHS England recorded 834 applications for 161 posts in 2025, against 681 for 181 in 2024. These are applications rather than people, and its 2026 ST3 figures are not yet published.

Applications open on 19 November 2026 and close on 10 December 2026 (Round 2). The General Surgery interview dates are not yet published; Round 2 interviews fall in the national window of 11 January to 9 April 2027. Initial offers are released by 13 April 2027.

No. At the Professional Development station the interviewers can't see your portfolio, so your logbook, audit, teaching and research only count through what you tell them. There's no presentation to prepare.

It may. From 2027, the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 applies to interview invitations as well as offers (in 2026 it applied at offers only). You are in the priority group if any of these apply: your primary medical qualification is from the UK or Ireland (unless you trained mostly outside them), or from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland; you are a British or Irish citizen, or have the right of abode, indefinite leave to remain or status under the EU Settlement Scheme; or you have completed, or are on, the UK Foundation Programme, a LAT post in this specialty or a training programme its person specification names as an entry route. Trust-based posts do not count. It does not change the interview or your rank. Your status shows in Oriel, and the deadline to ask for a review is 5pm on 15 December 2026.

In 2027 you can make at most five applications in each recruitment round, across all specialties.

Yes. In the Prep Lounge you meet another General Surgery candidate on video: one of you interviews, the other answers, and you both score the answer with the same mark scheme. Core includes 10 sessions, Pro 20 and Elite 40.

We read it once to list your experience and never store the file. You check the list, and only the list is kept, private to your account. It's used to point out what you left out of career answers, and it never changes your scores. You can edit or delete it at any time.

Every plan opens the whole General Surgery Interview Library and your progress and prep plan. If you add your CV, you also get feedback on what you left out of career answers. The plans differ in their tutor sessions, mock interview sittings and Prep Lounge sessions: 90, 3 and 10 on Core; 180, 6 and 20 on Pro; 360, 10 and 40 on Elite.

Yes. Sign up free, confirm your email and choose General Surgery, and three of its questions open: read each model answer as often as you like and practise each question out loud twice with the Virtual Tutor. The rest of the Library, the mock interviews and the Prep Lounge come with a plan.

Three months from the day you buy it. It is paid once and does not renew.

No. A plan covers one specialty, which you choose when you sign up.

The moment you press Start, even if you leave before answering. A Prep Lounge session is held when you book it and used only when it runs, so a cancelled session, or one your partner never joins, uses nothing. Reading the Library never uses anything.

Yes. Sitting one again uses another sitting from your plan, and your earlier report stays.

Yes. You pay the difference in price, and your end date stays the same.

You get one for each friend who signs up, and can hold up to three at once.