Planning the medical workforce : third report / Medical Workforce Standing Advisory Committee.

  • Great Britain. Medical Workforce Standing Advisory Committee
Date:
1997
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Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Planning the medical workforce : third report / Medical Workforce Standing Advisory Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREFACE The Rt Hon Frank Dobson MP Secretary of State for Health Richmond House 79 Whitehall London SW1A 2NS Dear Secretary of State MEDICAL WORKFORCE STANDING ADVISORY COMMITTEE THIRD REPORT On behalf of the Committee, I am pleased to submit to you our Third Report on planning the medical workforce. The Committee has continued, over the past two years, to consider likely health patterns, the demand for healthcare in the future, and the extent to which the expected growth in demand might be met by doctors. We formed our views by taking evidence from a wide range of interested parties, by analysis of available data and by considering research studies. We have consulted both in formal sessions and informally, with many of those people and organisations who are, directly or indirectly, responsible for the delivery of healthcare in the United Kingdom. Most importantly, we wish to draw your attention to our conclusions that we need a range of measures to address the current significant imbalance between demand for doctors and the domestic supply. We believe that this gap will become increasingly severe unless measures are taken now to address the problem. These measures must enable the country to respond to short and medium-term changes as well as long-term needs, although we recognise that this is difficult given the long lead- times in training doctors. We consider that all the main parties will need to work together to manage the key issues influencing supply and demand. Our recommendations include some steps to improve the retention of doctors; but it seems virtually certain that these steps can only alleviate, not resolve, the growing gap between home supply and demand. Our conclusion that a substantial increase in medical school intake is needed, rests on the principle that the share of the medical workforce taken up by UK-qualified doctors should not be allowed to fall further. I would like to thank the Members of the Committee, all of whom have contributed their knowledge, expertise and time towards the production of this Report. I know that I speak for all members of the Committee in recording our thanks to our Secretariat and the analytical team who supported them. Yours sincerely (at Cpe SIR COLIN CAMPBELL lil
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