Class still a barrier for would-be doctors

HALF OF the country’s secondary schools and colleges did not provide any applicants to medicine for three years, according to a new report calling for more to be done to ensure students from poor backgrounds become doctors.

The Medical School Council’s report says more work experience opportunities and better outreach work in schools is needed to tackle the shortage of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds considering a career in medicine.

The Selecting for Excellence group, which has produced the report, was set up amid concerns that medicine was lagging behind other professions for promoting social mobility. It has been chaired by Sheffield University professor Tony Weetman.

As part of the report, researchers from Leeds University looked at current work experience provisions to see if it was a deterrent to prospective applicants. Dr Gail Nicholls, director of admissions for Leeds’s School of Medicine said: “We find many potential medical students are put off by a work experience requirement.

“Yet it gives them an experience of providing care or help to other people, and it means they have a realistic understanding of medicine and working in a caring profession.

“More needs to be done to make these work experience opportunities more equitable, as we are still finding that a person’s ability to get work experience is often determined by their social class or their ability to network.”

The report is to be launched today at the House of Lords.