More medical students for England
Medical student numbers are to increase by up to 40%, according to the recently published NHS Plan for England.
A further 1000 places are being created at medical schools in England in addition to the 1100 extra places already announced. This will bring the annual intake to medical schools to nearly 7500.
The British Medical Association supports the move. Nick
Jenkins, chairman of the BMA
medical students committee,
said, "We welcome the increase
in medical students; it is a positive step in providing doctors for
the future of the NHS."
Medical schools are now
putting together proposals to
bid for the extra student places.
Joint ventures between universities, such as Manchester Medical School and Keele
University, are being discussed.
The Open University is trying
to finalise a two year preclinical
programme for medicine.
More medical school places should mean a wider variety of applicants (CSA ARCHIVE/PHOTONICA)
None of the schemes has yet
been confirmed. These changes
will primarily affect medical students in England. Scotland and
Wales are yet to announce their
healthcare plans.
However, it will be 10 to 12
years before these students are
qualified, and, according to Dr Robin Loveday, former president of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association,
10% more specialists are needed now.
Nick Jenkins agrees: "It is important to feed more students
in at the bottom of the chain,
but it is equally important to sort out the
problems in the postgraduate training."
The Department of Health has now allocated all the
1100 extra places previously
announced earlier this year. Of
these, 155 started at existing
medical schools in October
1999. A further 684 have been
allocated either to existing
schools or to collaborations,
such as a joint venture between
Newcastle and Durham Universities. The remainder will go to
the new medical schools, due to
welcome their first students in
October 2002.
Two new medical schools
have been announced. These are
the Peninsula Medical School, a
collaboration between the universities of Exeter and Plymouth,
and a medical school in Norwich
at the University of East Anglia.
A third, lesser known scheme,
the "Access to Medicine" course,
will be run by Guy's, King's, and
St Thomas's Medical School in
London, which aims to attract a
wider social mix of students from
less privileged backgrounds.
Jenny Blythe, Clegg scholar
studentBMJ 2000;08:303-346 September ISSN 0966-6494
