Important update to Medical Specialty Training Recruitment for Aug 2026

The UK Government has introduced a bill to prioritise UK medical graduates and doctors with significant NHS experience for specialty training which is now going through Parliament.   

What This Means for 2026 Recruitment -

Subject to the successful passage of the Bill, the changes will be applied at the offer stage for 2026 recruitment. This change will affect both the National and the Local Recruitment process in Northern Ireland.

For both Local and National recruitment, prioritised applicants will receive offers before non‑prioritised applicants.

Non-prioritised applicants will only be offered a training programme if there are no prioritised applicants remaining.

An applicant’s prioritisation status will be determined based on information recorded in their application form at time of submission.

What should applicants do?

We would encourage you to look out for further updates on our website which we will share as soon as more detail is available. 

Further information can be found here:

Important Update Medical Specialty Training and Foundation Programme 2026 Recruitment | Medical Hub