Letter: Brightest and best can be good GPs

Letter: Brightest and best can be good GPs

Sir: Jeremy Laurance missed one salient point. People over the age of 30 are discouraged, and even prohibited, from applying to medical school.

I recently applied to medical school at the grand old age of 33 and received one offer of interview (Liverpool University) and no place. This despite the fact that I have a PhD degree, have worked in a hospital pathology laboratory for five years and have undertaken voluntary work. One university (Birmingham) told me that applicants over 30 years of age are not accepted.

Whilst I appreciate that training to become a doctor is an expensive business and that younger qualified doctors are able to put in more years of service, I have to ask whether age and experience count for anything in the medical profession.

JOHN HAYS

York