Satwinder - Student Interviews
Satwinder has observed admission interviews to give a patient perspective on the selection of students for the Oxford University undergraduate medical course
About Satwinder
I am a Quality Improvement Coach (Lived Experience) at East London NHS Foundation Trust. I serve as a Patient Representative on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quality Improvement Committee, a Lived Experience Lay Advisor to NICE, and an Equality Advisor to the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health. I also co-chair the Citizens’ Panel for Health Equity England and have advised NHS England’s National Patient Safety Improvement Collaborative.
Why did you become a Patient Experience Partner?
I became a patient experience partner (PEP) driven by my personal experience caring for my father with Parkinson’s and my mother with heart disease, a condition linked to the familial hypercholesterolemia which has affected my maternal family. As someone of Indian heritage, I believe it is crucial for medical education to recognize the higher risk of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and hypertension in certain ethnic minority groups.
Research shows that South Asian populations, including Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani communities, have up to 50% higher rates of cardiovascular disease compared to the general population, with increased prevalence of diabetes and hypertension contributing to elevated stroke risk. Incorporating this knowledge into medical training is essential to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.
What have you done as a Patient Experience Partner?
One of the things I’ve done as a Patient Experience Partner is to observe the interviews that select students for the medical course at Green Templeton College in 2023. Most of the applicants seemed really motivated and I thought would make good doctors. But for a few, I was concerned about their ability to develop the empathy and communication skills they’d need in the profession.
On this occasion, the patient feedback didn’t count towards whether the applicant got a place on the course or not. But I think patients have a lot to contribute to the interviews – for example, they can feed back on the process and help to design interview questions. Just having patients involved helps keep everyone focused on choosing candidates who’ll put patients at the centre of their professional practice.
What’s next?
The process of trying to include the patient voice in how medical students are selected is quite complex for Oxford University. Part of the reason is that each college has autonomy about how they choose to conduct their interviews. However, we are continuing to work with several colleges on how to best incorporate patient input at this stage of medical training. Although progress may feel slow, we can already look back and see what changes we have brought about in other areas, and we'll continue to explore how patient perspectives can contribute to the admission interview process.
Based on an interview with Satwinder Kaur in September 2025