Emergency medicine: NHS Consultant Interview Questions
The emergency medicine questions that sit on top of the consultant appointments core: clinical scenarios, the system and governance questions specific to the specialty, and presentation titles.
Updated 7 November 2026
The structures these questions are marked on
- SAFER See the patient, Assess systematically with ABCDE, Fix what you can and decide, Escalate with a clear request in SBAR or ISBAR, Review: the patient told, the handover, the documentation and what you would do if the first plan failed. Full guide →
- The What it is in a sentence, Why it matters with a fact, What it means for this organisation and specialty, What I would do at my level and how I would measure it. Full guide →
- STAR Situation in a sentence, Task: what you had to do, Action: what you did in the first person, Result: the outcome with a number where there is one. Add Reflection for STARR. Full guide →
Clinical scenario
Decide and explain the decision. Own the complication plainly, describe the change and how you checked it worked. Be honest about gaps in your training and how you will close them; panels respect candour and distrust claims of complete readiness.
It is 2am, there are twenty patients waiting in corridors and ambulances queuing outside. You are the consultant in charge. What do you do?
See the department, not one patient: a walk round to find the sickest, including the corridor and the ambulances. Assess the board, staffing and beds. Fix: allocate senior decision makers to the front door and the resus, start the escalation actions, protect the sickest. Escalate to the site manager and the executive on call with the specific risk and what you need. Review: document the risk, speak to the patients waiting, debrief the team, and report it.
A CT head is delayed for a patient you are worried about. How do you manage it?
This was reported from a real panel. See and assess the patient, decide how urgent the scan is against the guidance, then fix the delay yourself: speak directly to the radiologist, escalate within imaging, consider transfer if the scanner is down. Keep the patient safe while waiting with observations and a plan for deterioration. Afterwards, find out why it happened and fix the pathway.
A major trauma patient arrives in a unit that is not a major trauma centre. Talk us through how you lead it.
Lead the team rather than do the procedures: allocate roles, run the primary survey, make the decisions on imaging, theatre and transfer. Escalate early to the trauma centre and the retrieval or transfer service with a clear request. Manage the family and the department around the case, then debrief the team.
A junior doctor discharged a patient who returned the next day much worse. How do you handle it as the consultant?
The patient first, then honesty with the patient and family under the duty of candour, then the junior: a supportive conversation, finding out what happened, without blame. Report it, look at the system (supervision, senior review, discharge criteria) and use it for learning in the department.
How would you improve the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in this department?
This was asked by a real panel. Know the current process, then name the gaps you would look for: the flagging systems, the training, the frequent attender, the adolescent, the domestic abuse disclosure. Propose one specific change with how you would measure it, and the named leads you would work with.
How do you decide when a frail older patient should not come into hospital, and who do you involve?
The comprehensive picture: frailty, wishes, what hospital can and cannot offer. Same day emergency care, frailty teams, admission avoidance with community services. Involve the patient, the family and the GP, document the decision, and safety net.
System knowledge
Read the trust's strategy, annual plan, CQC report and staff survey before the interview and quote their themes back. For waiting lists and productivity, name the levers a consultant actually has and how you would measure progress. Keep proposals to what one person can deliver in a first year.
What are the indicators of a successful emergency department?
This was asked by a chief executive at a real panel. The four hour and twelve hour measures, time to assessment, time to treatment for time critical conditions, ambulance handover, patient experience, staff wellbeing and retention, and the quality of care in the corridor. Say which you would prioritise here and why.
What issues are affecting this department at the moment, and how will you help?
Asked by a clinical director at a real panel. Know the department's figures before the interview: the waits, exit block, staffing, the estate. Then one realistic contribution with how you would measure it.
What is your view on primary care seeing emergency department patients?
Asked at a real panel. The evidence on streaming and urgent treatment centres, the risks, and the conditions under which it works. Give a balanced view.
Governance, safety and quality
Describe the incident, your part, how the patient or family were told, what the investigation found and what changed. For QI, give the problem, the measure, the change, the result and whether it stuck. An answer with no mistake in it is the worst answer.
How do we know that you are a good doctor?
Asked by a medical director at a real panel. Point to evidence: outcomes, audit, feedback from patients and colleagues, appraisal, complaints and how you handled them, and your own reflection.
How would you run a departmental morbidity and mortality meeting so it changes practice?
Make it about learning, not blame, include nurses and juniors, track actions to completion, and close the loop with audit. Give one change that came out of a meeting you were part of.
Teaching and research
Say what you have taught, to whom and how you know it worked, then propose something specific for this post. For research, be realistic: supporting trials and supervising projects is a credible answer. Name what makes a good educational supervisor from your own experience.
What is the best way to teach in an emergency department, and what methods would you use?
Asked at a real panel. On the floor teaching, case based discussion, simulation, the board round as teaching, feedback in the moment. Say how you would protect it on a busy shift.
Presentation
Answer the title set, not a general one. Signpost a structure with a recommendation, use facts about this trust, finish inside the time, and prepare for the questions that follow. Most panels now limit or ban slides, so practise speaking without them.
- Your vision for the emergency department at this trust over the next five years.
- Ending corridor care at this trust: what the department can do and what it needs from the hospital.
- Recruitment and retention in emergency medicine: keeping the workforce in this department.