Website of the Department of Health

Secretary of State's Foreword to
'Medical Schools: Delivering the Doctors of the Future'

I welcome this report from the Chief Medical Officer on the current state of undergraduate medical education in England.

As a Government, we have recognised that the NHS needed massive investment. The increased funding that we announced in 2002 will result in a real terms doubling of expenditure under this administration by 2007/08.  As part of this investment, we recognised that the workforce is the NHS's greatest asset, and that investment was needed not just in workforce numbers, but in the quality of education and training too.  So we have doubled NHS investment in education and training since 1997, rising from £1.7 billion in 1996/97 to £3.4 billion in 2003/04. 

Our investment has already resulted in a 32% increase in Consultant numbers since September 1997, and we have more GPs in the NHS than ever before. In the last five years, as this report illustrates, we have invested in the largest ever expansion of medical schools since the NHS was established, to serve the future doctors which the NHS will need. But numbers alone are not enough; we need doctors who understand how to respond to patient choice, work effectively in teams and use their professional skills in the optimum way for their patients.

Therefore, in line with the investment made by the Government, we have looked to our partners to be equally radical in the sphere of education. This review sets out how Medical Schools and the General Medical Council have risen to the challenge. As well as implementing innovative new ways of teaching, new and established medical schools have launched initiatives that reach out into the community to recruit a wider range of students into the profession. We welcome these developments, which are absolutely in line with the wider Government aim that everyone should be enabled to reach their full potential.

I want to commend what has been achieved so far - but we need to make much more progress, this is only the springboard for continued effort. We need to build on the investment of money, time and educational expertise to support the doctors of the future and their future patients.

John Reid
Secretary of State for Health

• Download Medical schools: delivering the doctors of the future (PDF, 145K)