Medical school places to be expanded next year

The government has announced an expansion to medical school places a year early.

205 places will be added for the new academic year in 2024 - subject to consultation.

The additional places will be funded by the government.

The Office for Students has started to allocate 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. More places have been offered to the University of Central Lancashire and Edge Hill medical schools.

Health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay, said: "We’re turbocharging our plans to boost the number of people studying medicine at university which will lead to more doctors staffing our hospitals in the future.

"By setting the wheels in motion to begin delivering on the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan already, we can continue making progress cutting waiting lists and getting patients the care they need even faster."

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."

Professor David Green CBE DL, the Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Worcester, said: "We are delighted by the decision to allocate an initial 50 funded places for medical students from September 2024 to the Three Counties Medical School at the University of Worcester. In the years to come this will make such a positive difference to the people of the Three Counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire together with the Black Country borough of Dudley and Halesowen, all of whom live in such ‘under-doctored’ areas of the country. We would like to thank NHS England and all in government and Parliament who have contributed to this most positive decision."