The DOccMed portfolio: the July 2024 template, section by section

The DOccMed portfolio is two reports on one Faculty template, a workplace assessment and a clinical case, totalling 1,500–2,000 words and marked across 13 sections worth 50 marks (25 for each report). It is uploaded with your exam application by the registration closing date, cannot be changed afterwards and is then explored in the 20-minute oral. This guide covers every section of the July 2024 template with its marks and a word budget, the format rules and where marks are lost. Checked against fom.ac.uk on 29 September 2026.

The two reports

The DOccMed regulations ask for two reports. One is based on a visit to a workplace and your assessment of it. The other is based on a clinical case that you saw and examined yourself. Together they must show that you can apply occupational health and safety principles in practice. The template also has a short section describing your relevant occupational medicine experience, which is neither marked nor counted.

Download the July 2024 template from the Faculty’s website and start from that file. Older copies of the template still circulate online, and the template itself says that any deviation from it will lead to automatic failure of the portfolio section.

The 13 marked sections, their marks and a word budget

The marks are the template’s. The word budgets are our suggestion: 1,900 words in total, roughly in proportion to the marks, leaving 100 words of headroom under the 2,000-word cap.

Risk assessment gets the largest budget because it carries the most marks and needs all five steps for each main hazard. The 2-mark sections get 70–90 words, enough for one focused paragraph each. If you are writing nearer 1,500 words, scale every budget down in proportion rather than dropping a section.

The template’s format rules

• Length: 1,500–2,000 words for both reports combined. Only the first 2,000 words are marked. Enter a word count at the end.
• Main body only: all text to be assessed goes in the main body. Only photographs and illustrations are accepted as appendices.
• Style: font size 10 or 12, single spaced, in a narrative style in preference to lists or bullet points. Grammatical errors are penalised and the regulations allow marks to be deducted for poor presentation.
• References: a short bibliography or references in the final box, Vancouver style, not included in the word count.
• One file: a single document of no more than 8 MB, with any appendices scanned in, numbered, labelled and referred to in the text.
• Identity: your name, candidate number and GMC number on page 3 only.
• No links or attachments: no embedded links, file icons or zip files. The portfolio is printed for marking.
• The current template only: the template says that any deviation from it will lead to automatic failure of the portfolio section.

The deadline

The portfolio is uploaded as part of the exam application, so its deadline is the registration closing date for the sitting at which you take the oral, not the oral itself. It cannot be changed once the application has been submitted, and places are limited and allocated first come, first served, so apply early in the window with the portfolio finished. For November 2026 registration closed on 21 September; the orals are on 17, 18 and 24 November.

The 2027 registration windows are not yet published. The 2027 MCQ papers are on Monday 10 May and Monday 8 November, with oral dates to be confirmed. For May 2026, registration for the shared Part 1 MFOM paper ran from 12 January to 9 March, so a portfolio for May 2027 may need to be finished by early March. Check the Faculty’s DOccMed page before relying on that. The two parts can be sat together or separately.

Choosing a workplace

Choose a site that gives each section something to work with:

• one you can walk round in person, with a manager who will explain the processes and share existing risk assessments and any monitoring results;
• two or three main hazards from different groups in the template’s classification;
• at least one hazard with measurable exposure and clear legislation, such as noise under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 (lower and upper exposure action values of 80 and 85 dB(A), exposure limit 87 dB(A)) or a substance with a workplace exposure limit in HSE’s EH40, so the measurements section has real values to interpret;
• a workforce you can describe in numbers: headcount, occupations and shift patterns;
• the employer’s permission to write about the site, anonymised if they prefer.

Choosing a case

The case must be a worker you saw and examined yourself. Look for:

• a condition that work may have caused or aggravated, so the aetiology discussion has substance (if you choose a fitness-for-work case with no occupational aetiology, the template asks you to say so);
• a case in which you advised on functional limitations and adjustments, worth 7 marks between them;
• a documented consent process for communicating with the employer;
• an outcome you will know before the registration closing date, for the long-term follow-up section.

Write the case so that the worker cannot be identified. Your own handling of the case should match what you write about confidentiality and data protection under other issues.

Where marks are lost

Each of these follows directly from the template’s wording or rules.

• Running over. Only the first 2,000 words are marked, so an overrun costs whatever comes last.
• Hazards named but not described. The template asks for the health effects and the numbers exposed.
• A risk assessment that skips steps. It asks for the five steps for the main hazards.
• Numbers without interpretation. It asks what the values mean, what range you would expect and how that would change your advice.
• Conclusions without a communication plan. It asks how you would tell the workforce and managers.
• No occupational reasoning in the case. Say whether work caused or aggravated the condition, or state that there is no occupational aetiology.
• Consent left out. It asks how you gained consent to communicate with the employer.
• Format slips. A missing word count, text in an appendix or personal details outside page 3 break the template’s rules. Bullet-point lists go against its preference for narrative.

Resits

The regulations require a new portfolio each time you re-apply for the portfolio and oral. There is a maximum of six attempts at each part before you must retake an approved course. Both parts must be passed within five years of completing your approved course. The two parts are separate, so you can resit one without the other.

How this fits the platform

The DOccMed package includes a question bank for the MCQ and a viva trainer with mock oral stations and flashcards for rehearsing aloud. The revision guide and the free Core Tools, a set of interactive revision tools, sit alongside it. Free sample questions are on the package page.

Back to the Core Lens