Local Member of Parliament Antony Higginbotham has called for the Government to increase the number of places available to train doctors within the UK, and specifically highlighted Burnley’s UCLan campus which already has a full medical suite. Speaking in Parliament Antony raised the possibility of using existing education providers like UCLan in order to train up more medical staff, without incurring major additional cost, which would benefit communities that need them most.
The call follows latest figures which show that only 45% of doctors joining the General Medical Council register last year were trained in the UK, with many choosing to come and work in the NHS from elsewhere.
It also follows an announcement by former Chair of the House of Commons Health & Social Care Committee, and now Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, that the Government is undertaking an independent NHS workforce review which is looking at staffing requirements for the next 5, 10 and 15 years.
Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on medical training in the UK Antony said:
In Burnley we have the University of Central Lancashire, which already trains medics, but the number it trains for the UK is relatively small; it does a far bigger international programme. [But] the university is more than willing to switch that over and train far more here for the UK. We do not need a massive number of new facilities [to do that either], so the capital cost is relatively small. It is just about saying to the medical schools, “You can train more UK students.
Commenting on Antony’s intervention Graham Baldwin, VIce-Chancellor at the University of Central Lancashire agreed:
The University of Central Lancashire has the capacity and expertise to train more doctors to work in Lancashire and the wider North West and we have the demand to address the widely reported shortages in the workforce should we be given the additional places by the Government.
We receive approximately 50 applications per medical place from students based in the North West who ultimately want to contribute to medical care and reduce health inequality in the region. This demand reflects that we ranked top for medicine in the North West in the 2021 Guardian University Guide.
More numbers would enable us to further our work with our NHS partners which includes significant collaboration with the hospitals in East Lancashire. The University is part of the solution to addressing shortages of doctors and healthcare workers and improving patient care.
Speaking after the debate Burnley and Padiham’s MP said:
We have seen a major increase in the number of doctors across the country since 2010, with more than 34,000 joining the medical register, but a huge number of these are trained abroad and that doesn’t need to be the case. That’s why I’m calling for a greater number to be trained here at home. This of course brings significant cost in the short term, with every place costing around £200,000 on average, but we can offset this by mandating minimum periods of time in the NHS – 5 years for example.
And by using local providers more, we will also see big benefits in local hospitals like Burnley General, with a much larger pool of newly qualified doctors who are looking to make Burnley their home.
I recognise that increasing locally trained doctors normally requires significant investment and a big expansion of facilities, but in UCLan we already have the facilities in place. I’ll continue to push for these to be fully utilised for the benefit of residents, so we can see educational opportunities realised at the same time as getting those vital doctors in to our NHS.
The Government is currently implementing a commitment to increase the number of GPs by 6,000 by the end of this Parliament.
