Blog / Eligibility and screening questions

Does a clinical attachment count as NHS experience?

By the Health Job Scout team · 4 min read · Fact-checked 22 October 2026

"Do you have NHS experience?" is one of the most common questions on an application, and one of the easiest to get wrong. If you have done a clinical attachment, you may wonder whether it counts. The short answer is that it is experience of the NHS, but it is not employment in the NHS. What an advert makes of that difference is up to the employer.

What a clinical attachment is

The BMA describes it as a way to see how the NHS works by observing a consultant in a relevant specialty. You are not given responsibility for patients and you can't make clinical decisions or give clinical advice.

After a period of observing, you may be allowed to take on some duties, following a risk assessment and under the consultant's supervision. The BMA lists observing consultations, patient administration, taking histories, examining patients and observing surgery. Attachments usually last two to four months and can cost from £400.

Do you need one?

No. The BMA says an attachment isn't a requirement for GMC registration or for working in the NHS. It can help you show you understand how the NHS works, and the GMC registration application asks for details of your work in the previous five years, which includes this kind of placement.

Does it count as NHS experience?

Three things are worth keeping apart.

• Employment. A paid post with a contract. An attachment is not this.
• Internship for GMC registration. The GMC does not accept observation-type placements as an internship.
• Experience on a form. Here the wording decides. "NHS work experience" or "12 months NHS employment" points to paid work. A looser phrase such as "experience of working in the NHS" is up to the employer to interpret.

Nobody publishes a rule that settles this for every advert. If the wording is unclear, ask the contact listed on the advert and keep their reply. Our guide to applying when the advert asks for NHS experience covers how to decide whether to apply at all.

How to write it on your CV

This part is our advice, not an official rule. Describe it as exactly what it was.

• Call it a clinical attachment or observership, not a job. Don't use a job title such as "doctor" or "SHO" for it.
• Give the hospital, the specialty, the dates and the name of the supervising consultant if they agree to be a referee.
• Say what you did: what you observed, and any supervised duties you were allowed to carry out.
• Say what you learned about how the NHS works, in specifics: how a ward round runs, how patients are escalated, how a team shares work. A line like that is more useful to a shortlister than the word "exposure".

What about the yes or no question?

If a screening question asks whether you have worked in the NHS, and your only experience is an attachment, the honest answer is no unless the question is clearly wider than that. Use the free-text box if there is one to say what you did. If you aren't sure, ask before you submit. We go through this in our post on answering pre-screening questions honestly.

An application is a statement you sign, and the NHS checks employment history. Listing an attachment as employment is a risk you don't need to take.

When an attachment is worth it

If you have a placement available at a hospital you'd like to work in, it can give you a referee in the NHS, a better understanding of the system and something concrete to write about in your supporting statement. Ask what the scheme includes and what it costs before you commit, and be wary of anything that promises a job.

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