Medical students call to halt medical school expansion that is 'jeopardising standards'
Medical schools should halt increases in student numbers until postgraduate training capacity is improved, the British Medical Association has said.
In a new campaign, the union's medical students committee (MSC) has called for a pause on the rapid expansion of students across the UK which is “jeopardising the high standards” of education.
Medical students have warned that students have to sit on the floor during lectures and are being turned away from overcrowded placements, the union has previously warned.
The campaign follows a vote at the MSC conference earlier this month which backed calls for student numbers to be cut and the expansion of programmes opposed without guaranteed foundation and specialty training posts for graduates.
'Unsustainable expansion'
MSC co-chairs Elgan Manton-Roseblade and Henry Budden said the UK medical degree is “being seriously undermined by unsustainable expansion across medical schools”.
Numbers of students have increased since the previous government pledged to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 by 2031, although the current government appears to have moved away from this target.
The BMA campaign calls for an expansion to core and speciality training with the equivalent post-CCT employment and an increase in the number of medical academics.
There should be robust monitoring of placement capacity and educational delivery by NHS providers and medical schools.
Manton-Roseblade and Budden said high quality undergraduate education can only be guaranteed with adequate teaching capacity and enough medical academics to maintain standards.
'10 students on a ward round'
In some areas of the UK there can be more than 10 students on a ward round, and students are “regularly turned away from scheduled teaching,” they claimed.
“We're demanding a pause in medical school expansion until we can guarantee first-class medical education, alongside adequate training jobs in foundation, core and speciality training,” they added.
The new campaign also calls for a guarantee that all UK graduates will be offered a foundation programme post and not be allocated a placeholder.
Graduates put on the placeholder list do not know where they will work within their deanery, which can cover large areas and multiple hospitals.
Students are being encouraged to report the impact that rapidly increasing places is having on their education.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited unsustainable levels of competition for training posts due to poor workforce planning.
“That’s why, we have brought in a new law to slash training bottlenecks by prioritising homegrown talent for foundation and specialty training, with applicants benefiting from this year.
“Our 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the NHS workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10 Year Health Plan. But it will not simply be a numbers exercise – it will focus on skills, deployment and productivity so we can deliver better care for patients and better jobs for staff.”
