The chairman of NHS England has said the time it takes to qualify as a doctor must be cut to compensate for staff shortages.
Richard Meddings suggested that new medics are overqualified after seven years of training because “most” cannot fully utilize their skills on the job.
The former banker, who took up his post a year ago, said the NHS had fewer doctors and nurses than other developed countries.
He admitted that staff shortages coupled with an “exponential” increase in demand due to an aging population had created a “capacity problem”.
Mr Meddings said vacancies could be filled by speeding up the training of doctors or hiring more support staff, such as nurses. Mr Meddings made his comments during a panel discussion on the future of the NHS at the Social Market Foundation think tank.
NHS England chairman Richard Meddings has suggested that new medics are overqualified after seven years of training because “most” are unable to fully exploit their skills on the job.
When asked if it was possible to train a doctor in less than seven years, he replied: “I would have thought so. Or you go to medical assistants – so you switch skill levels.”
The aspiring doctors spend five years in medical school followed by two years of internship for their undergraduate training. Once qualified, they can specialize and work as consultants for another eight years.
Mr Meddings said the NHS needed to increase its workforce in an unfavorable comparison with other Western countries.
He added: “We have 15 percent fewer doctors and 25 percent fewer nurses than the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) average relative to the population… So you see there is a capacity issue.”
Former health secretary Lord Warner has called for an overhaul of NHS staff in the face of 124,000 vacancies.
UK GPs have the highest levels of stress and the lowest job satisfaction compared to doctors in nine other high-income countries, a survey by the charity Health Foundation has found
He said: ‘What we have never done is look at whether it takes us seven years to train a doctor. France will do it in five years and if you go to America you will probably be seen by a doctor a lot.”
But the British Medical Association warned it would jeopardize patient safety and compromise the quality of medical staff.
Professor David Strain of the BMA said: “There is a serious staffing crisis in the NHS which urgently needs to be addressed, but jeopardizing the time it takes to train and educate medical students is not the solution not.
“Reducing training time will degrade education and reduce the completeness of patient care.”
The government is preparing to release a 15-year NHS jobs strategy which is expected to include plans for thousands of additional medical and nursing trainees who will do much of their learning on the job.
- British GPs have the highest levels of stress and the lowest job satisfaction compared to doctors in nine other high-income countries, according to a study by the Health Foundation. They reported higher levels of emotional distress and increased workloads than their peers in almost every other country, and many considered quitting the job altogether.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
