Wes Streeting at Policy Exchange: new roadmap to double medical places

• Speaking on Friday at Policy Exchange, the Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, will deliver a keynote speech at the launch of a new report setting out a roadmap to double the number of medical school places to 15,000 a year by 2029. 
• This will result in more than an additional 17,000 doctors working in the NHS by 2035, and an additional 45,000 by 2040, thereby closing the gap to the OECD average.
• Recommendations include opening 12-15 new medical schools; expanding and diversifying the talent pool, including graduate entry; expanding the role of innovation including the use of simulation-based learning and ‘virtual placements’; and DHSC to establish a new national planning unit, with a particular focus on expanding placements in primary and community care.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting will launch a new report at Policy Exchange on Friday, putting forward a plan to double the number of medical school places to 15,000 a year by 2029.

‘Double Vision: A roadmap to double medical school places’ develops a detailed and costed roadmap to double the number of medical school places, to enable 15,000 medical students a year to enrol on courses in England by 2029. This will result in more than an additional 17,000 doctors working in the NHS by 2035, and an additional 45,000 by 2040, thereby closing the gap to the OECD average. An embargoed copy can be found at this link https://policyexchange.org.uk/?p=31411&post_type=publications&preview=1&_ppp=f493d7e632.

The UK needs more doctors: another 45,000 doctors would be required to bring us up to the OECD average. The consequence is a large increase – and often a reliance – on international recruitment and the use of costly locum or bank staff. In England, the NHS now spends at least £3bn on locums each year. Despite these efforts, the NHS remains comparatively under-doctored.

The case for expanding domestic capacity to train doctors is moral and economic. There are global shortages of medical staff, and a consensus it would be unsustainable and unethical to continue to actively rely on recruiting doctors from developing countries. At the same time, investing in our domestic pipeline makes sense: thousands of talented students are rejected from medical schools each year and last year, more people applied to medicine and dentistry courses than ever before.

Doing so would require government investment of approximately £1.2bn over the five- year period from 2024-2029, covering both capital and ongoing training and placement costs.

In the medium to long term, the investment will pay for itself, both in terms of increased student loan repayments and income tax returns – the Institute for Fiscal Studies has calculated that medicine provides a lifetime return to the Exchequer of £260k for women or £505k for men – and, more immediately, by the increased supply of doctors leading to a significant reduction in the current £3bn annual bill the NHS currently pays for locum and agency staff.

The paper focuses upon seven critical pathways to achieve this ambitious goal. These are:

1. Expanding existing medical schools;
2. Opening new schools;
3. Diversifying the talent pool;
4. Adapting curricula and course structure;
5. Optimising the teaching workforce;
6. Delivering more clinical placements;
7. Securing funding.

Along each pathway the report explores the approaches which may be taken to overcome barriers as well as examining the regulatory reform required.

Dr Katie Petty-Saphon MBE, Chief Executive, Medical Schools Council, said:

"Expanding medical school places will be essential to supporting the future needs of the NHS. This timely report strikes the right balance between optimism and pragmatism, recognising that progress will be needed along each of 'seven pathways' the authors identify to double places. It recognises the critical role that existing schools – as well as new schools – will play, balancing this with due consideration for the additional clinical placements, educators and researchers who will be required. It marks an important and credible contribution to the debate and deserves a wide readership in the healthcare and higher education sectors, as well as across Government. We hope its recommendations are taken forward.” 

Professor Alistair Fitt, Chair of the Universities UK Health Policy Network and Vice Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University said:

“We know that the NHS needs more doctors and that UK universities provide a world-class medical education. If you want to double the number of medical school places, this report provides a clear plan on how to do it. Given it would cost less than 1% of the total NHS budget, why wouldn't you want to do it?”