First graduate-level medicine school to tackle GP staffing crisis

Scotland's first graduate-level medicine course is being established in a bid to address the GP crisis in rural areas.

The course will offer students a route onto what is traditionally a highly competitive degree

The four-year course will be open to existing graduates from any discipline with an interest in pursuing a degree in medicine and will have 40 places available. It is being delivered by the medical schools in St Andrews and Dundee in collaboration with the University of the Highlands and Islands.

The course will begin next Autumn and will offer students a route onto what is traditionally a highly competitive degree - requiring a high-level of commitment. For example the new MBChB programme at the University of Edinburgh would take six years to complete – with students typically going on to complete a two-year foundation programme before becoming doctors.

The new course will begin next Autumn against the backdrop of a recruitment crisis throughout the NHS in Scotland, with a projected deficit of 828 GPs in Scotland by 2021. Senior doctors including Dr Miles Mack, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland) and Dr Alan McDevitt of the BMA, have both spoken about the need to widen access to medical schoolsFirs and the importance of recruiting GPs who can identify strongly with the local communities in the areas they practice.

Health Secretary Shona Robison, said: “As part of our efforts to create a workforce fit for the future of the NHS, we are looking at innovative ways to attract talented people. This graduate-level course is ideally suited to those who did not choose medicine as their first degree, but now want to consider it as a career.”

The Scottish Government introduced a £20,000 ‘Golden Hello’ incentive for GPs to move north but it has so far failed to alleviate the recruitment problems.

Dr Elaine McNaughton, RCGP Scotland Deputy Chair, said: “We are pleased to see these places opening in September and call on Scottish Government to keep up a long-term concentration on rebuilding the GP workforce. We have a real concern at the predicted shortfall of 828 GPs to serve patients by 2021. Unless that gap is filled, patients can only expect a poorer service.

Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Anas Sarwar MSP said: “While we welcome this attempt to address the shortage of doctors in the NHS, the fact we are in this situation shows just how far our NHS has fallen under a decade of mismanagement by the SNP.”

Details of the course will shortly be posted on the medical schools’ websites.