Core Revision
The oral: what the examiners are listening for
21 September 2026 · 4 min read
Twenty minutes, two examiners, starting from your portfolio. They are not testing whether you know everything. They are testing whether you think like an occupational physician.
← All DOccMed Core WisdomThe DOccMed oral lasts 20 minutes, with two examiners, each questioning you for about ten minutes. It is based on your portfolio — the workplace visit report and the clinical case report — and on your understanding of the issues closely related to them. Anything you wrote is fair game, and so is the reasoning behind it.
The shape of the conversation
Expect to start with your own work: why that recommendation? what would you have done if the employer had refused? what did you measure, and why? Then the questions widen to the issues around your cases — fitness for work, health surveillance, the control of the hazards you saw, sickness absence and rehabilitation, and the law and ethics behind your advice.
What scores: a structure the examiner can hear
- For a fitness-for-work question: the job and its demands; the condition and what it does functionally; the risk, and to whom; the options, including adjustments; the recommendation, and who it goes to.
- For a hazard: identify it; assess the risk; control it by the hierarchy — eliminate, substitute, engineering controls, administrative controls, personal protective equipment; monitor with health surveillance where it is justified; record and report, under RIDDOR where it applies.
- For an ethical question: consent, confidentiality and its limits, the worker’s right to see what is written about them, and the Faculty’s ethics guidance.
Say the framework out loud — “I’d approach that in four steps” — and then fill it in. A clear structure shows how you think, even when a detail wobbles.
Occupational health advises; the employer decides. The occupational physician gives advice in functional language, with the worker’s informed consent to what is shared. An answer that keeps those roles straight sounds like a specialist.
What loses marks
- Silence while you search for the perfect answer. Think aloud instead.
- Guessing a number and then defending it. Say what you would check, and where.
- Treating the employer as the enemy, or the worker as the problem.
- Forgetting the third party in safety-critical work — the passenger, the patient, the public.
- Not knowing the legal basis for your own advice: which regulations require the health surveillance you recommended?
Preparation that works
Summarise each of your two cases aloud in ninety seconds, then defend every recommendation to a colleague who keeps asking “why?”. Rehearse the classic scenarios: the driver with epilepsy, the healthcare worker with a blood-borne virus, the pregnant worker exposed to a hazard, the teacher returning after depression, the worker with noise-induced hearing loss, the healthcare worker with latex allergy, the safety-critical worker with new-onset diabetes. The Viva & Portfolio guide sets out the format and the preparation, and the fitness-for-work and health-surveillance aids in DOccMed Core Tools drill the same reasoning.
“Your workplace report recommends audiometry for the press-shop workers. Why?” Structure the answer: the noise survey showed daily exposures above the upper exposure action value; the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require health surveillance where there is a risk to hearing; audiometry detects early hearing loss, so that controls can be improved and individuals protected; each worker receives their own results, and the employer receives fitness-for-work information and anonymised group results — not clinical details.
On the day
Listen to the whole question. Pause. Answer the question you were asked, in a structure, and then stop — the examiners will ask for more if they want it. If you do not know, say how you would find out.
The oral is on MS Teams. The FOM’s guidance for the diploma orals (November 2025) allows no books, notes or written materials in the room. If you want to check something in your portfolio, ask the invigilator to share it on screen; you get no extra time for this. Join 15 minutes early with your passport or driving licence ready and expect to show the room on camera.
- Teams set-up tested: camera, microphone, connection and a quiet private room.
- Desk cleared: no notes, books or written materials, no second screen, smart watch or recording device.
- Passport or driving licence ready (no other ID is accepted).
- Phone used only for the initial room check, then switched off and out of reach.
- Need your portfolio? Ask the invigilator to share it on screen. No extra time is given.
Structure first, detail second — and keep the roles straight: the employer decides, you advise, and the worker consents to what is shared.
Sitting the DOccMed? Try ten questions free.
The DOccMed Question Bank has 1,000 questions across twelve modules, with module drills, a timed mock and the portfolio and viva guide. It is £49.99 for 12 months. Try ten questions first, free and with no sign-up.