It occured to me today that of all the  places I have worked that one of the most unusual was the PLAB test set up at the General Medical Council. For those who don’t know PLAB is “the main route by which International Medical Graduates (IMGs) demonstrate that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to practise medicine in the UK”). My brief tour round the PLAB testing facilities during my brief stint at the GMC was fascinating. There are something like 12 senarios each in their own room within a specially designed complex that candidates have to pass through, with a set time linit for each, where they have to practice their medical skills with volunteer actors playing patients with real conditions.