Blog / Eligibility and screening questions

"12 months NHS experience required": should you still apply?

By the Health Job Scout team · 3 min read · Fact-checked 15 October 2026

You find a job you like. The essential criteria say "12 months NHS experience". You haven't got it. Do you apply?

There isn't a single right answer, and we'd be wary of anyone who gives one. Here is how to think it through.

Essential criteria, desirable criteria or a pre-screening question?

It can appear in three places, and they behave differently:

• In the essential criteria of the person specification. Shortlisters score applications against this document.
• In the desirable criteria. You can lose points but you aren't ruled out.
• As a pre-screening question on the application form. Some of these automatically stop your application if you answer no.

If it's a pre-screening question that filters you out, an honest "no" ends the application. In that case, applying won't help you, and answering yes when it isn't true would be a serious problem (more on that below).

If it's in the essential criteria

Some doctors who haven't worked in the NHS still get shortlisted, and some don't. We can't give you numbers, and nobody publishes them. What you can control is how well you show the rest of the specification: relevant clinical work, communication, understanding of how the NHS works, and evidence you've prepared.

A sensible approach is to apply if you meet nearly everything else and the post isn't blocked by an automatic question. Treat it as a chance, not a promise, and don't stop applying elsewhere.

Does a clinical attachment count as NHS experience?

A clinical attachment or observership is not employment. Our full guide to clinical attachments and NHS experience goes further. The GMC describes an attachment as watching a consultant, without clinical responsibility at first, and later maybe limited duties such as taking histories under supervision. The GMC won't accept observation-type placements as an internship. So the safe rule: an attachment is experience of the NHS, but not work experience in the NHS. How a given advert reads the phrase is up to the employer, so look at the exact words, and ask if unsure.

Never claim NHS experience you do not have

Never say you have worked in the NHS if you haven't. The GMC's Good medical practice (2024) says doctors must be honest and trustworthy in their professional written communication, make sure what they tell people is accurate and not misleading, and not hold back relevant facts on purpose. The NHS Counter Fraud Authority lists claiming qualifications, skills or experience you don't have, to get a job, as NHS staff fraud. Prosecution has happened: the NHS Counter Fraud Authority has reported people jailed for lying about qualifications and references.

Making your application count

Name what you did on your attachment. Show you understand the NHS: how teams work, how patients are escalated, what governance means in practice. Link each point to a line in the person specification, so a shortlister can tick it quickly.

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