Medical Students (Hansard, 4 May 2004)

§ 3. Rob Marris (Wolverhampton, South-West) (Lab)
If he will make a statement on the number of students entering medical training schools in (a) the current year and (b) 1997. [169825]

§ The Secretary of State for Health (Dr. John Reid)
In autumn 2003, English medical schools admitted 6,030 students. In 1997, the figure was 3,749. That is an increase of more than 2,250 medical students, or more than 60 per cent. since 1997. It is the largest increase in medical school places since the national health service was established.

§ Rob Marris
As we say in the black country, those figures are bostin'.
My late father was, for more than 25 years, a consultant radiologist at the hospitals that now form the Royal Wolverhampton hospitals NHS trust, and I, too, worked there. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the Wolverhampton trust is playing its part in helping to train that record number of doctors, and that NHS funding, especially for training, will be maintained?

§ Dr. Reid
Indeed, I can. I know that my hon. Friend takes a familial and political interest in these matters as well as a constituency interest, so I took the trouble to check the figures on the Royal Wolverhampton hospitals NHS trust. In 2002, more than 180 medical students undertook practice placements in the trust; in 1997, there was none. The trust has expanded its postgraduate doctor placements by nearly 35,000 in two years. My hon. Friend may also be interested to know that the nearby Birmingham medical school admitted 428 students in autumn last year, compared with 215 in 1997 a 99 per cent. increase.

§ Mr. David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)
The Secretary of State has referred to the increase in the number of medical students, but he has not referred to an increase in training in complementary and alternative medicine for medical students or doctors, in line with the recommendations of the Lords report on alternative and complementary medicine, which even his Department admits is a benchmark. What increase has there been in training in complementary medicine for doctors, and does he plan to increase the percentage?

§ Dr. Reid
There has been an increase in the training of doctors in almost every single field. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman looks rather quizzical, but between 1979 and 1997, when the Conservative Government were responsible, not a single new medical school was opened and, indeed, two dental schools were closed. However, this Government have opened four new medical schools since the autumn of 2002 alone, so there has been a marvellous upsurge in the number of medical places and doctors in practice as well, and that goes right across the field. As the hon. Gentleman knows, unlike the previous Government, provided that there is always reasonable regulation and empirical evidence to substantiate the efficacy of alternative medicine, this Government are intent on extending choice and information to patients in the national health service.

§ Dr. Andrew Murrison (Westbury) (Con)
In the 1970s, the right hon. Gentleman's predecessors got their predictions for our dental work force very badly wrong, and our constituents are living with the consequences. Given that the best guess that the Minister of State, the right hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), was able to reach in European Standing Committee C for the number of doctors that we would have to train to take care of the European working time directive was between 6,000 and 12,000, how much confidence can Ministers have in his predictions for our future medical man force requirements? Will he tell us the net number of doctor hours that will result from those increases by the year 2009?

§ Dr. Reid
Today is the 25th anniversary of the unfortunate election of Baroness Thatcher. On that date in 1979, the message repeatedly given was that everything was the fault of the Labour Government in the early 1970s. After 25 years, the record has not changed at all. In fact, there are now 2,000 more dentists than there were in 1997, and the reason most of them are not doing as much NHS work as previously is the disastrous contract that the Conservatives introduced in 1992.
On the working time directive, while we do not for a moment diminish the difficulties that two legal judgments have caused, an enormous amount of work is being done to ensure that, both in methodology and numbers, we can cope in the NHS. The hon. Gentleman talks about the 1970s, but Britain, including the British national health service, is working once again, and it would be an absolute disaster to let him and his colleagues ruin it once again.