Brewster, Liz (2026) Future Medical Education and Workforce Strategy : The Impact of Medical Training Pathways on NHS Workforce Distribution and Health Inequalities. The Clinical Teacher, 23 (Supple): e70385.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Background: NHS workforce recruitment and retention is a long-standing concern in healthcare policy and service delivery. Some areas of the United Kingdom struggle to recruit and retain doctors more than others (underdoctored areas). How medical training programmes are organised is important, because we know that where doctors are educated and train is a big influence on where they end up working. In this presentation, we aim to explore how medical education and workforce strategy impact on the distribution of doctors, focusing on experiences of those working in underdoctored areas. The presentation will share key findings from the NIHR-funded research ‘Mapping underdoctored areas: The impact of medical training pathways on NHS workforce distribution and health inequalities’. Methods: Qualitative data were collected via 100 semi-structured interviews with doctors conducted from November 2022 to June 2024. Interview data were contextualised in organisational and policy histories located in archival data, and quantitative data from national datasets were analysed to examine movement patterns and socio-economic deprivation. Outcomes: The workforce is changing for the better, with greater diversity and better representation of the UK population as a whole. However, the training pathway has not kept pace with changing needs. As workforce characteristics change, these different characteristics have an impact and doctor-led adaptations to training pathways are visible. These informal adaptations present a problem to reliance on the projected ‘pipeline’ of workforce planning. By reflecting on the experiences of those who work in areas that struggle to recruit and retain doctors, we can learn more about what supports medical training under difficult circumstances and improve working lives. Learning Points and Take-Home Messages: Medical education and training pathways need to respond to changing workforce needs to support the workforce of the future. These changes have to be achieved with an awareness of access to healthcare as one of the social determinants of health.