School leavers can work as doctors without earning degree
SCHOOL leavers will be able to start working as doctors without going to university, under NHS plans to fix the staffing crisis.
The apprenticeship scheme could allow one in 10 doctors to start work without a traditional medical degree, with on the job training straight after their A-levels. A third of nurses are also expected to be trained under the “radical new approach”.
It is the centrepiece of a long-delayed NHS workforce strategy, following warnings that staff shortages in England could reach 500,000 without action to find new ways to train and recruit health workers.
Amanda Pritchard, the head of the NHS, said: “This radical new approach could see tens of thousands of schoolleavers becoming doctors and nurses or other key healthcare roles, after being trained on the job over the next 25 years.”
Highlighting 124,000 health service vacancies in England, she said the forthcoming plan offered a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to put the NHS on a
‘This plan offers a once-ina-generation opportunity to put the NHS on a sustainable footing’
sustainable footing”. Normally, doctors’ training involves five years at medical school, with annual tuition fees of about £10,000, before students begin work on the wards on a starting salary of about £29,000.
Health officials said the “medical doctor degree apprenticeship” involves the same training and standards as traditional education routes, including a medical degree, and all the requirements of the General Medical Council.
Candidates will be expected to have similar A-level results to those required for medical school.
The key difference with such models is that apprentice medics will be put on the wards almost immediately, working under supervision, while being paid.
NHS officials said that exact requirements will be drawn up by universities and employers, with the first medical degree apprenticeship due to launch this autumn.
Under the five-year scheme, which will have 200 places over two years, apprentices will study alongside their work, allowing them to “put newly acquired knowledge and skills into practice immediately”.
Existing nursing apprenticeships, which allow recruits to earn on the job during a four-year training course, are expected to be expanded
under the scheme. The idea has been debated for several years, with some medics raising concerns that it could create a “two tier system” with apprentice degrees seen as “lesser”.
The Doctors Association UK last year noted that the schemes could spark hostility between young doctors over clinical placements, if some are being paid for work that others are expected to do for nothing.
Pay rates for the schemes have yet to be announced, with concern that less wealthy candidates could opt for the programme only to find their long-term earnings are overtaken by those on traditional training routes.
Dr Latifa Patel, workforce lead for the British Medical Association, said there were “huge question marks” over how far medical apprenticeships could solve the NHS staffing crisis.
Rachel Hewitt of Millionplus, which represents modern universities, said that “recruitment to a nursing apprenticeship is not necessarily the simplest option for increasing recruitment numbers into the profession”.
Ms Pritchard added: “University isn’t right for every school-leaver and some want to start earning straight away, while others may decide on a career in health care later in life.”