NHS Covid App reported down by users across the UK

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Professor Malcolm Reed, chairman of the council, told The Times there is a current need for 5,000 more places to take the total of medical students in training to 14,500. One of the reasons behind the council’s request, which would cost £1 billion in public funding, is the low number of trained medical professionals coming from Europe since Brexit.

However, Professor Reed says colleagues from South Asia and the Philippines keep coming to the UK to work for the NHS.

“The number of EU staff has largely reduced so for nursing and doctors, we’re even more intensely looking to recruit from traditional options such as South Asian countries and the Philippines,” he said.

“These colleagues make amazing contributions to the NHS which would grind to a halt overnight without them and nobody is saying that should end.”

The foreign-trained professionals don’t cost a thing to British universities, while one UK trained medical student costs about £200,000.

Unlike most other courses, there is a cap on student recruitment at medical schools based on how many clinical placements local hospitals can offer.

University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) figures show that 28,690 students applied to medicine in 2021, a rise of 21% on last year.

Universities made 21,577 offers, a reduction of 14.4% compared with 2019, representing a 41.2% rise in rejections.

Hundreds of students were asked to delay starting medical school last year after A-level grade inflation, which means they are also taking up spaces on courses that started this autumn.

The report shows that the number of UK doctors joining the medical register was 7,511 in 2019, about the same as in 2015.

Over the same period, the number of EU doctors fell by almost 7 per cent but those recruited from further afield almost trebled to 7,130.

“It is not that international doctors are not as good as those who qualified in the UK but the question is really whether a highly developed country like the UK should be reliant on other countries for their doctors and nurses,” said Professor Reed.

“Jeremy Hunt said in 2017 that the NHS needed to have a long-term view for the sustainability of doctors.

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“This has been stated on a number of occasions but not happened to the extent required.”

Mr Reed also claims that there is a growing dislike of the profession of GP among medical students following the impact of Covid on local surgeries.

“A lot of GPs will say they are increasingly dealing with very complex cases.

“And it’s difficult at the moment for students because the signals they pick up around general practice are very negative.

“The very public criticism of the public conversation about general practice, particularly in relation to issues like face-to-face or remote consultations is very damaging for GPs’ and public confidence.

“While these issues need to be addressed, the nature of these criticisms is very damaging in the short and potentially long term.”

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