Hull York Medical School welcomes largest ever intake of medicine students

This week Hull York Medical School welcomed its largest ever intake as 257 students embark on their journeys to becoming outstanding doctors. 235 students will join the Medical School’s MB BS Medicine programme, while an additional 22 students will join the School’s new Medicine with a Gateway Year Programme – a widening participation initiative which aims to provide an opportunity for those students who do not meet the standard entry requirements of the five year MB BS Programme to fulfil their dream of becoming doctors.

This increase in medicine students follows the Department of Health initiative to expand the number of medical school places in England. This initiative resulted in Hull York Medical School being awarded an additional 90 places – a 70% increase in places and the largest award of existing medical schools in the UK.

Professor Una Macleod, Dean, is very much looking forward to welcoming students. She says 'Hull York Medical School was established in 2003 in response to the need to address the acute shortage of doctors, particularly GPs, within the Yorkshire region. Since then we have trained over 1600 doctors. These doctors are now working as GPs and hospital consultants within the region and beyond and many are returning to us as tutors, inspiring the next generation of Hull York Medics. As we prepare to welcome our largest ever intake of medicine students my colleagues and I are looking forward to working with them to ensure they develop as confident, compassionate exceptional doctors who can are able to respond to challenges within the healthcare sector and to transform patient care.'

When the School was established its vision was to offer a nationally leading and internationally known medical education that produces excellent doctors equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to respond to challenges within healthcare and to transform patient care. Since then it has worked in close partnership with local NHS Trusts and community healthcare providers to ensure it remained abreast of local and national workforce needs – training doctors in hospitals, primary care and community settings across North Yorkshire, the Humber and North Lincolnshire and Goole.

Health services in Hull and East Yorkshire face particular challenges in terms of deprivation, remoteness, rurality and the specific challenges of providing sustainable healthcare in coastal communities. There is also a high prevalence of health inequalities and long-term conditions such as heart disease, cancer and lung disease, as well as challenging socio-economic conditions. Yet health services providers across the region face severe workforce challenges across all types of care, and it is difficult to attract junior doctors into the region from other medical centres. There is a shortage of GPs in the Hull York Medical School sub-region: the four Clinical Commissioning Groups serving the most socially deprived areas have fewer than 50 GPs per 100,000 population – a situation that is likely to worsen as many GPs are over 50 years old.

However, medical students are more likely to work in under-doctored areas if they are trained there, and locally trained doctors are more likely to stay in the areas where they have trained.

The School’s commitment to Widening Participation and providing opportunities for students to realise their potential and fulfil ambition of becoming doctors is reflected in the numbers of students joining from within the local area. Of the new medicine students joining the School in 2019, 84 are from the Yorkshire and Humberside region and over half of these are from the School’s immediate area. And nearly 30% of those students come from postcode areas with low rates of progression to University.

Professor Martin Veysey, Programme Director for the School’s Medicine programme believes that the School’s commitment to its region and the unique approach ensures its students develop the knowledge and skills needed to become brilliant doctors. He says ‘Students on our medicine programme are experiencing real life situations with real life patients from week three of our programme. They are developing those skills which are critical to being a doctor but are also making a valuable contribution to patients within our communities during their training. This exposure to communities means they will likely continue to train and work in our region after they have graduated, as many Hull York Medics before them have done.’

Students interested in studying medicine can find out more by visiting the School’s website at www.hyms.ac.uk/medicine or attending an open day on Saturday 5 October 2019 (University of Hull).