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Many thanks as, often before, to Dottie for alerting me to this. From the Guardian yesterday:
Ministers have dramatically stalled plans to double the number of doctors being trained in England by 2031 in a move that has caused dismay across the NHS, as well in medical schools and universities, the Observer can reveal.
In June last year, ministers backed a long-term plan to expand the NHS workforce and pledged, amid great fanfare, to “double medical school places by 2031 from 7,500 today to 15,000, with more medical school places in areas with the greatest shortages to level up training and help address geographic inequity”. Labour is also committed to raising the number of doctors to 15,000 by 2031.
But a leaked letter written jointly by health minister Andrew Stephenson and the minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, Robert Halfon, to the independent regulator the Office for Students, says they will fund only 350 additional places for trainee doctors in 2025-26. This is less than a quarter of the annual number widely anticipated and there is no guarantee that even that level of resource will be repeated.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/25/government-u-turn-on-plans-to-double-number-of-medical-students-in-england
So that’s 7 850 for 2024/2025.
What’s been happening in Scotland, I hear you ask, after exposure on December 28, 2023, to the BMA (Scotland) on Reporting Scotland telling us – NHS staffing levels are dangerously low – BMA Scotland
Just this:
So 1 317 doctors training in Scotland, should have meant, all things being equal, with 10 times the population, 13 170 in England but it was only 7 500.
Per head of population, Scotland is training on the way to twice as many?
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Talking-up Scotland 
More Tory promises reneged upon. When will they be gone. Soon?
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A new test for cancer. A ‘sponge on a string’. Then relieved from the stomach. Relieves waiting list for further investigation. 80%.
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” … but let’s talk about Michael Matheson or Ferries or Sturgeon or …anything negative !”
Minutes of the latest GMS staff meeting -allegedly .
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It’s actually quite hard to compare places to outputs, as Scottish medical degrees are longer than English ones (6 years compared to 5 years – students in England spend a second year in “sixth” form mainly in Schools studying for overspecialised A levels). This means that there is likely to be a little more attrition and higher government costs for university rather than school education. However students are likely to be better prepared for modern working in health settings in my view.
Although there should in theory be Barnett consequential payments for any increase in medical school training places in England, as I posted on the Guardian Politics blog earlier today, these are likely to be offset by the recent UK government change in the current £9,250 tuition fee loan repayments for those from England moving from 30 to 40 years. Due to compound interest and many graduates not earning enough to repay their loans at a marginal rate of 6% on income above £21k per year, this is a de facto additional graduate income tax for many graduates working life. The average fee loan being around £28k, plus the maintenance loan for the ‘boarding school’ experience in England’s universities and high rental costs, especially in London, means many graduates living in England before they enter university have a loan of £60k+ on graduation (more than double typical Scottish student levels), that they will never repay after 30 years and possibly even after 40 years (though probably medical students will just about).
Yet the Tories still claim Scotland is the “highest taxed” part of the UK, ignoring not just median salaries but the way student loan repayments for those from England increasingly act as a graduate income tax at 6 percent marginal rates.
However because the change in repayment of loans is now extended for new entrants, over time this will save the UK government’s Department of Education for England ‘charges’ made under the RAB (‘Resource Accounting and Budgeting’) process to the Department’s annual accounts – in effect to put aside less money for non-payment/write-off of student loans not repaid. The effect of this reduction in notional accounting spend is actually a NEGATIVE Barnett consequential and means devolved governments will get LESS money even though none of the devolved governments have moved to 40 year repayment terms (Barnett payments can go down if spending in England goes down). It’s over a long time, but the effect clearly hits devolved government funding.
Michael Picken, Glasgow (retired University planning expert)
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Sorry ” higher government costs for university rather than school education” should have been followed by “in Scotland”, just to make clear what I meant.
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I suspect the BBC will be urgently calling for an interview with the Auditor General for England to explain why the UK Gov has abandoned their long term recruitment plan for the NHS. Well maybe not.
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Ah, but did you hear anybody from the Grauniad query other than NHS England https://archive.ph/Hcq3v ?
The telltale of societal manipulation is embedded in the article as X spaces “allowed”, and it is worth dwelling on… The Cameron-Clegg compakt of 2012 turned up all sorts of oddities beyond themselves, including Jo Swinson of irritable vowel syndrome fame to serve as PPS to the DPM and achieve SFA, and Gove as Education Secretary who arranged for clear lines then snorted the lot..
So HMG knew 10 years ago how many doctors would be required today and screwed up, and the answer is rinse/repeat… 🙄
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Hoyle has now retracted his offer to the SNP for another Ceasefire debate…
Surely not yet another meeting between him and Keir Starmer on this topic !
NMRN
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This is why Scotland is banned by the EngGov from having their own broadcasting platform, (EngGov controlling the narrative & telling lies) except for indy ones via YouTube like Broadcasting Scotland…airing progs like Scotland at 7 via YOUTUBE…needs more ppl watching sharing & donating.
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let’s not forget the Louisa Jordon hospital.
Carried out over 32,000 healthcare appointments, trained over 6,900 healthcare staff and students and vaccinated about 175,000 people.
In just about every sphere of healthcare, the SNHS and government out perform England.
Golfnut
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