How do I get work experience placements at hospitals and how much work experience is considered sufficient?

Although some work experience is necessary for getting into med school, it is not about how much work experience you get but more importantly how much you have learnt from it! Getting work experience in a hospital is useful in getting to know what practicing medicine is like, however I understand that it is hard to get hospital work experience nowadays. If you manage to get work experience in the hospital that's great but medical schools do understand this is hard and are more interested in other aspects of healthcare in the UK. For example, I would advise that a variety of work experience eg. time spent in care homes, GP's, charities and fundraisers would make a stronger application compared to an applicant who had done loads of hospital placements. Medical schools want to know that you are aware how healthcare is delivered in multiple avenues as opposed to only knowing how healthcare is delivered in hospitals. There is no specific amount of hours I would advise for your work experience but what is more important is about creating the bigger picture in medicine by exploring a variety of centres which provide care to people.Also it is important that you reflect on the work experience you have done and don't just say what you saw but analyse and evaluate your experience and relate it back to a current issue in the NHS or relate it back to why you want to do medicine. It is also even better when you say how you helped and what you contributed to your work experience. This will come in handy when writing your personal statements and will be extremely useful when asked about it in interviews.