Context
UK medical graduates face intense competition with overseas graduates for postgraduate training positions, leading to many domestic graduates being unable to progress in their careers within the UK.
Question
Some 9,000 UK medical graduates compete with 15,000 overseas graduates for postgraduate training, meaning that many of our own graduates simply cannot progress into higher professional training, and either go abroad themselves or leave medicine. Does the Minister agree that the Treasury has a crucial role to co-ordinate spending on medical university education by the Department for Education and on postgraduate training by the Department of Health and Social Care, so as to ensure that public money spent on medical student education is not wasted?
Answer from Darren Jones (Chief Secretary to the Treasury)
The Government are committed to training the staff the NHS needs as part of our 10-year plan. International staff clearly play an important role in the mix of staff that we have, but we also want to create opportunities for people across the country to work in our national health service. That is why, thanks to changes this Government have made, we have already been able to recruit more than 1,500 additional GPs since October who would otherwise not have been able to seek that type of employment.
Not addressed: Coordination between the Treasury and other departments on medical education spending was not directly addressed. The answer focused on recruitment efforts rather than coordination on funding allocation.
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