Students will be able to apply to new medical school places a year early as the government has announced it will fund 205 additional places for students starting in 2024, accelerating a commitment in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan published in June.
The Office for Students has begun the process of allocating these places and has offered places to new medical schools at Worcester Three Counties, Brunel and Chester, which do not currently have any publicly funded medical places, as well as offering more places to the University of Central Lancashire and Edge Hill medical schools. The location of these schools will help ensure medical school places are available where they are most needed, including training much-needed additional doctors for the North West.
This comes in advance of the larger expansion across the country from 2025 onwards that will deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commitment to double medical school places by 2030 to 2031.
Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, said: "Medicine is a hugely popular course and we’re bringing forward funding for additional medical places in areas of the most need, helping to create a future talent pipeline for the NHS.
"This will support the workforce in tackling key challenges and providing critical care for the public, by training the next generation of doctors a year earlier than planned."
