They're still people with valid medical licenses - the pool of candidates wouldn't have people who couldn't legally practice medicine, so I'd assume the qualification criteria they were being assessed on is unrelated to their ability to not accidentally kill me on the OR table.
Hopefully not unqualified, just not the "best" available
People get rejected because they are not the best fit, not because they are unfit.
While this may be true, (but someone has to be the lowest scoring one - it could've been a group where everyone is great) keep in mind it was a list of candidates who are aware of their lowest scores, getting a training position in a place aware of their lowest scores, with 5 more years ahead of them. It sucks that it happened, but I think they'll be under extreme scrutiny/pressure now.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/12/excel_anesthetist_rec...
"ANRO decided to honor the 10 job offers it had made by mistake and used Oriel to tell the candidates. Unfortunately, a system error in Oriel meant it then erroneously sent that communication to an additional 16 candidates. ANRO decided to honor these 16 additional offers too, and find the candidates posts."