NHS England has confirmed it is on target to deliver the expansion in medical school places promised in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), following a call from RCP for clarity on the delivery of this commitment.
The NHS England response to RCP president Dr Sarah Clarke’s letter states that it is ahead of target on the initial milestone to increase medical training places from an intake of 7,500 in September 2023 to 8,200 places by September 2025, and now expects to deliver up to 8,326 medical school places.
Dr Sarah Clarke said: "The RCP has long called for a doubling of medical school places, so we supported the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan and welcomed the early allocation of 205 additional places for the 2024 academic year as a positive step towards this target. We are reassured that the overall commitment will be met, and welcome this clarity on the number of places planned for 2025. We look forward to continued transparency over its delivery.
‘"RCP will continue to work with government and the NHS on the LTWP; getting more robust data on medical specialties to inform specialty projections in future iterations of the plan must be a priority. We are also working to improve the support and working life experience of all doctors, including the reform of medical training and extra support for those doctors not in training programmes."
