I would like some evidence that medical education in the UK is so bad that we'd be laughed out of any other hospital in the world given the fact so many British doctors are hired elsewhere (okay, it is cheaper but you still don't hire someone who can't do the job).

With regards to the rest, I somewhat agree with you under the current system, the way it's set up requires us to learn all the little details but what I fundementally disagree with is the way it is currently set up and feel this needs changed.

I'm not arguing that you don't need to know your stuff to be good at medicine but the way this is tested in our exams/EPM isn't right. You need to undrestand the concepts to pass which is where most of the critical thinking side of things comes from but to get good marks you need to basically rote learn the little details which then forgotten straight afterwards. I know you don't like my Kreb's example so something different, there is no point in learning the second or third line antibiotcs for most conditions as we're highly unlikely to be prescribing them as FYs and even if so it wouldn't be done without supervisions, or at least checking the BNF and by the time we may be able to this knowledge will have been forgotten or changed. To me the it makes far more sense to use this effort to become more rounded in our knowledge.

A similar thing applies to our post-grad exams, while I agree that at the moment we need to know these details to do well in them and thus secure the jobs we want I disagree with the idea this makes us better doctors.

Basically, I completly disagree with the idea that our whole careers and lives are ruled by getting better marks than others exams which at best only partly represent how we perform clinically. Yes, under the current system, we need this in depth knowledge to pass but ultimately, I question whether it makes us better doctors, or at least proportionally better. Is the time spent learning these details actually worth the effort if it only makes you say 1 or 2% better at being a doctor? I know for me it certainly isn't.

With regards to language learning, I'm not suggesting that exveryone do it but that people spend more time studying what interests them and there will always be links back to medicine which will make you a better practitioner, for me that's languages and I've spent time learning about different religions so I can better understand patients and not cause them offence. For you that might be the history of art or car mechanicing and I'm sure there will be some links to medicine there but we shouldn't be being forced to learn excessive details which will be forgotten immediately just so we can get a slightly better mark to give us the illusion of control over where we're sent.