England’s National Health Service (NHS) has outlined ambitions to double the number of medical school places, with more schools likely to be needed in areas suffering the most from staff shortages.
A highly anticipated 15-year, long-term workforce plan published on 30 June aims to address the recruitment crisis in healthcare with a large investment in training.
An initial cash injection of £2.4 billion will increase medical school places by almost a third in the next five years, with nursing degrees increasing by more than a third and GP training places going up by a quarter, NHS England said.
Eventually the health service aims to open up 15,000 medical school places by 2031 amid fears that vacancies could rise from the current 112,000 to 360,000 by 2037.
