Proposals to shorten the length of UK basic medical education could have an impact on patients and the medical profession, the BMA has warned.
Current proposals from HEE, the organisation responsible for medical education and training, has recommended bringing forward the point at which students fully qualify as doctors by a year so it coincides with graduation.
It says the change will enable all suitable medical graduates to secure full GMC registration and provides a potential solution to foundation programme oversubscription.
But the BMA medical students committee has said the move could have other, less positive, consequences. MSC co-chair Harrison Carter said:
“HEE argues that it will bring improvements in patient safety, but we worry that reducing basic medical education by a year will result in the opposite.”
“The proposal could also mean that medical graduate unemployment is more likely, with more applicants to the foundation programme being possible from those outside the UK and Europe. This would be an enormous waste of both public and student investment in medical education.”
