Medical training needs ‘radical change’, new review chair says

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By Erin Dean

Postgraduate medical education needs “radical change” to allow resident doctors to “flourish”, the new chair of a major government review has said.

Professor Dame Jane Dacre has pledged to make “meaningful improvement and reform” following her appointment to lead the UK-wide implementation of the recommendations of the first phase of the Medical Education and Training Review.

The emeritus professor of medical education and former director of the University College London medical school has been appointed the independent chair by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The first phase of the review by chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and the former NHS England national medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, called for urgent reform across postgraduate medical education and training.

It found that training needs to be more flexible and called for bottlenecks across the pathway to be tackled.

More than 8,000 doctors, medical students and patients responded to the consultation for the report which concluded “fundamental” change was needed.

New approach

Dacre said that the current system was designed more than two decades ago in the era of the “dial up internet and Blockbuster”. This “is not the one we need in the age of artificial intelligence and Netflix,” she said.

Dacre said she will work with doctors, the General Medical Council, Medical Schools Council, royal colleges and other bodies to drive change, ensuring the voices of other clinical professionals, patients and managers are heard.

“Everybody agrees radical change is needed, and I want the next generation to experience a new approach that ensures we have resident doctors who flourish, who are trained where patients need them and who are better treated by the system.

Dacre, a retired physician and rheumatologist, continued: “We want to support all resident doctors to feel valued and to aspire to excellence. To make the NHS fit for the future, we need to reshape how we train doctors who are key to the future NHS and we need to start now.

“This next step is not further diagnosis, but a professionally led approach to turning the findings so far into meaningful improvement and reform.”

Dacre is president of the Medical Women’s Federation and a past president of the Royal College of Physicians.

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS National Medical Director, said: “Dame Jane’s appointment will move us forward quickly. It is time to stop admiring the problem and start fixing it. Jane is the ideal person to do that."

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