Opportunity 'Lost' For Low Income Medics

A new report aimed at increasing the number of doctors from lower income groups was today branded a 'missed opportunity'.

Doctor and medical student leaders said that it failed to address the full of extent of the soaring financial cost of studying medicine in the UK.

Unleashing Aspiration, the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, chaired by Alan Milburn MP, sets out its recommendations to the government on widening participation amongst lower socio-economic groups in key professions such as medicine.

While agreeing with some of the conclusions of the report, the BMA is critical of the UK government for restricting the panel's remit to prevent a full examination of the financial obstacles facing aspiring doctors.

Medical leaders also rejected the idea that tuition fee waivers for those staying at home would have a substantial impact on increasing social mobility in medicine.

Tim Crocker-Buque, Chairman of the BMA's Medical Student Committee, said: "Just 4% of medical students currently come from the lowest two socio-economic groups.

"Ministers have no hope of addressing this poor level of participation without examining the crippling and increasing costs of medical education," he said, noting that the panel has been "undermined from its inception by the government’' refusal to allow it to examine fully two of the main barriers blocking wider access to medicine – debt and tuition fees".

He continued: "Medical students pay £3,140 annually in tuition fees during their five to six year course and are restricted in the amount of paid work they can take by the intensive and lengthy terms that last 48 weeks of each year.

"The BMA estimates that future generations of doctors face an average graduation debt of £37,0003.

"Parents already have to provide £3,000 in annual support to get their children through medical school.

"Fee exemptions for students living at home will not solve this problem as most medical students do not live within travelling distance of the 32 medical schools in the UK," he said. "This policy will therefore not help low income families in many areas of the country.

"It will also not remove the financial burden incurred by all students in their final years when they are required to travel long distances for their clinical placements at different locations."

Also commenting, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Head of Science and Ethics at the BMA, said: "We agree with the panel that more work needs to be done at school level to provide encouragement to children from lower income backgrounds, especially when it comes to career services in secondary schools.

"It is important that there is greater support for mentoring programmes and we must also look carefully at the benefits of targeted programmes that help financially disadvantaged students receive extra support when studying for their medical degree.

"However, this must not become a vehicle for positive discrimination, which would undermine the basis of our merit based education system.

"The BMA will examine the recommendations of the Panel in detail and will shortly publish a report examining the current demography of medical schools that will further inform debate on this topic," he said, concluding that the government has to "address the financial crisis of student debt that threatens to undermine all the proposed actions in this report".

(BMcC/KMcA)