Call for more training places in Scotland

The BMA has called on the Scottish Government to develop more training places for doctors to ensure medical students have somewhere to work after graduating. First minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Wednesday that investment of more than £23 million would increase the number of medical school places. She added that a new entry-level programme for applicants from deprived backgrounds would help widen access to medicine as a career. In addition, Scotland’s first graduate-entry programme for medicine would help support students who worked in the NHS after they qualified, Ms Sturgeon said. She added: ‘At present, only one in 20 new doctors comes from the most disadvantaged areas of our country — if we had truly equal access to the medical profession, that figure would be one in five. That’s not a reflection on the talent or aptitude of students from disadvantaged areas, it's an indication of how disadvantage acts as a barrier to equal opportunity.’   Wider access Ms Sturgeon said the new entry-level programme would help secondary pupils from deprived areas to prepare more effectively for medical school places, and that widening access would be a priority when filling an extra 50 medical school places from this year. The graduate-entry programme would include an offer to pay fees, conditional upon students agreeing to work in NHS Scotland when they qualified. BMA Scotland council chair Peter Bennie, pictured, welcomed the £23 mi...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news