Helen Salisbury: Shortening the medical degree

NHS England has just announced that it will be piloting four year undergraduate medical courses from 2026, and the General Medical Council seems ready to play its part.12 This idea was aired in the long term workforce plan published a year ago,3 but a consultation with the profession was widely expected, so many commentators have been surprised by this announcement.45One of the professed reasons for a compressed degree is that students accumulate a lot of debt over the course of five years of study, which is unattractive to candidates from less advantaged backgrounds. A shorter degree would mean less debt and an opportunity to start earning sooner. Current graduate entry courses mostly last four years, so it’s clearly possible to cover the medical curriculum in this time, and the GMC promises no lowering of standards or of requirements for doctors qualifying from these shorter undergraduate courses.2There are clearly some problems…
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