What happens in the Acute Internal Medicine (ST4) interview
The Acute Internal Medicine ST4 national interview (2026 recruitment, Physician Higher Specialty Training) is held online on Qpercom Recruit and has two stations of 15 minutes each, lasting about 40 minutes including the time between stations. There are four questions of about 7 to 8 minutes each, and each station has its own pair of scoring interviewers. You are marked 1 to 5 by both interviewers on the four questions and on your communication skills: five scored areas in total.
Checked against the official sources on 26 September 2026.
The parts, in order
About 7 minutes on a brief written clinical scenario (two or three sentences) that you are given a short while to review beforehand, then about 8 minutes on the non-clinical side of being the medical registrar, opened by a one-minute presentation: 'A summary of your experience managing the acute unselected medical take as the medical registrar.' Your communication is marked across the whole station.
About 7 minutes on your suitability for and commitment to acute internal medicine, expanding on your application form, then about 8 minutes on an ethical, professionalism and governance scenario that is not given to you before the station and is put to you verbally by the interviewers.
How it is marked
Each of the five areas is marked 1 to 5 by both interviewers, giving ten marks and a raw interview score out of 50; 3/5 is satisfactory, the level expected of a core-level trainee applying to the specialty. The areas are weighted (clinical scenario x2.0, medical registrar suitability x1.5, communication x1.0, suitability and commitment x2.0, professionalism and governance x1.5) to give an interview score out of 80, which is added to half your application score (out of 40) for a total out of 100, used for ranking.
Passing
To be appointable, none of your ten interview scores can be 1/5, no more than two can be 2/5, and your raw interview score must be 30 or above.
Worth knowing
- The presentation must last no more than one minute and you will be stopped at that point; no visual aids such as PowerPoint are allowed.
- Acute internal medicine is a Group 1 specialty: it requires completion of Internal Medicine Stage 1 training (IMT) or equivalent, with an exception for some current intensive care medicine trainees applying to dual train, and all its programmes dual specialise with general internal medicine.
- PHST says the interview content is subject to change and will be confirmed by the date of interview; details for posts starting from August 2027 will be added to its website during autumn 2026.
Sources
- Acute internal medicine | PHST Recruitment
- General format | PHST Recruitment
- Interview scoring | PHST Recruitment
- Future recruitment | PHST Recruitment
- Acute Internal Medicine ST4 2026 | Medical Hub (NHS England)
Formats change. MedMock is not affiliated with any examining body; always check the current regulations on the official site before you apply.
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