Medical schools in the United Kingdom will be forced to drop their entry standards if they want to cope with declining applications and increasing places, according to a report in the Guardian (29 August).

The government plans to increase the number of people receiving medical training, but for the last few years the number of people applying for places has been dropping. The government wants 7500 new medical students to start university in 2003. At current rates, only about 9000 students would be applying for these places, leaving medical schools with little choice over who they accepted.

Professor Graeme Catto, chairman of the General Medical Council's education committee, believes that medical schools face a clear problem so they will have to drop required A level grades to attract more students. He said, "I hope that medical schools will look at other ways of selecting students than A levels, so the number of people will grow from different sectors of society. I do not think the people who will make the best doctors necessarily have three As."

However, Mr Michael Powell, executive secretary of the Council of Heads of Medical Schools, which represents all UK medical departments, disagrees with Professor Catto. Powell believes that medical schools are not facing a problem because the decline in applicants has levelled off this year, evidence, he believes, that word has gone out that more places exist. However, he agrees that A level standards among medical students will drop, admitting that the laws of supply and demand will gradually ensure that schools take people with lower grades.

"If you look back 20 or 30 years you find that if you had three Bs you could go into medicine. That only changed because of the number of applicants, and I think going back to that could be good for medicine," Mr Powell said.