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Student doctor numbers to rise by 25%

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I can see no sensible argument against Britain moving towards being self-sufficient in developing medical staff. It is a scandal that we aren't already.

You can blame the media for that one. Generations of children and teenagers have changed their future prospects from the public services (Doctors, Nurses, Police, Fire, etc) toward more glamorous and 'rock 'n' roll' style careers such as Acting, Musicians, Artists, and the like. To make it big in the latter has an even smaller chance of success than becoming a Doctor, yet it is what many children and teens aspire to.

Things like the recent Industrial Action and constant tarnishing of the public services in the media are unlikely to help their cause either. We've seen plenty of strikes, disputes, and poor treatment of the public services over the last decades with large job cuts and salary reductions in many of these areas. It's no wonder that future applicants are put off.

Hell, you could get a nursing degree for free with no payments and pretty easy entry requirements (GCSE C Maths and English along with some basic Healthcare qualifications which take about a year to obtain) and we still struggled to acquire enough nurses that we had to look abroad to meet our staffing quotas. Now that opportunity is gone and we expect to see the same number of applicants in the future? That is laughable.

Reply 21

username2471155

Original post by AnnaRainbows

Thoughts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37546360

I ha

Reply 22

Good bloke

Original post by Marathi

You can blame the media for that one.

Well, no. We train only 6,000 a year for financial and policy reasons and for reasons of capacity, not a shortage of applicants.

When was the last time you heard of a medicine course being undersubscribed? Every year there are from 15 to 17 thousand UK-based medicine applicants for about 6,000 places. When there are more places there will be more applicants as people are encouraged to think that application success is more likely.

Reply 23

Letournel

Original post by taysidefrog

I think it's excellent news. We are struggling to find a replacement for our senior partner who is retiring in March and I'm probably going to need to work more hours than I want for a few years. There are several GP vacancies in the area, plus a shortage of many hospital consultants.

I don't think having to work for the NHS for 4 years after you qualify is that unreasonable, if you don't fancy it then don't study medicine. We need doctors, not just people with medical degrees.
We also need 50% of medical students to become GPs.
As general practice covers all of medicine and GPs need a greater breadth of medical knowledge than most consultants I do feel that if you are thinking of being a doctor but definitely don't want to be a GP you probably don't really want to be a doctor.
I think there should be an incentive to stay in the NHS, particularly in areas of need though, like reducing your student debt or abolishing it after x no of years' service.

Not wanting to be a generalist certainly doesn't mean someone doesn't want to be a doctor. I've never wanted to be a GP yet still somehow have managed to stay on track and still enjoy being a doctor.