Kent and Medway Medical School Bid

Feed URL: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/health-news-events/2017/12/11/kent-and-medway-medical-school-bid/feed/?withoutcomments=1

Kent and Medway Medical School Update

Background to the application to HEFCE/HEE for medical school places from 2020/21

1
There are currently 6,000 funded medical school places in England each year and 29 medical schools but currently no medical schools in Kent and Medway. In 2016 the Secretary of State for Health announced an additional 1,500 medical school places to be made available – 500 through existing schools in 2018/19 and a further 1,000 to be awarded for 2018-21 for both existing and new schools.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Health Education England (HEE) are running the competition for these places. The first stage of this process required bidders to submit 20 page applications by Thursday 23 November. The applications are required to demonstrate how applicants can address the Government’s five priorities for awarding the places:

-Widening participation and improving access, so that the medical workforce is more representative of the population it serves

-Aligning expansion to local NHS workforce needs, with an emphasis on priority geographical areas, including rural and coastal areas

-Supporting general practice and other shortage specialties, so that the NHS can deliver services required to meet patient need

-Ensuring sufficient provision of high-quality training and clinical placements (with funding provided to HEFCE for the additional teaching costs and to HEE to support additional high-quality placements)

-Encouraging innovation and market liberalisation.
These will be reviewed and an expert panel will award places on a portfolio basis by 31 March 2018. Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent have submitted a bid to launch the Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) in 2020 This is supported by Brighton & Sussex Medical School as its ‘parent partner’ institution, the leaders of Kent and Medway’s health economy and the county’s MPs.

2 The case for a medical school in Kent and Medway

Kent and Medway faces significant and well documented challenges in developing and maintaining its clinical workforce but currently has no medical school of its own. These challenges are compounded by a population that is ageing, growing, and is in places, particularly along the coast, among the most deprived in England.

-Increasing population: Kent and Medway’s population is predicted to grow by almost a quarter with 414,000 new people in 188,200 new homes by 2031

Aging population: growth in the number of over 65s is over four times greater than those under 65 and currently there are 12,000 people with dementia in Kent and Medway

-Areas of deprivation: Public Health England identifies that Kent and Medway has some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in England, including the coastal local authorities of Thanet, Swale and Shepway

-Health and care workforce: there are extensive and lengthy vacancies in key positions within primary and secondary care resulting in a knock-on effect on the quality of care and public confidence.

Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent have a vision for a new medical school, which builds on their existing strengths in high quality clinical research and teaching. Based in the UNESCO world heritage city of Canterbury, KMMS will directly address the key challenges to the local health economy: playing a unique and transformative role for the patients and users of services while offering an excellent student experience.

Kent and Medway Medical School

3 What will the medical school offer?

KMMS will be a beacon for first class medical education and research, and the first choice for all those aspiring to
achieve excellence in person-centred medical care in the UK.
By providing a distinctive, socially diverse and insightful graduate supply chain, KMMS will enable, influence and
drive changes within the clinical workforce to deliver high quality healthcare and outcomes across Kent and
Medway. KMMS graduates will:

-Be recruited into roles within NHS providers across Kent and Medway, progressing through career transitions
and remaining in the locality

-Be equipped to deliver person-centred approaches to care, within multi-professional teams, which improve
patient experience

-Develop careers that address workforce shortages in priority areas

-Be collaborative, locally embedded and committed to enabling, leading and transforming health care
delivery

-Challenge system flaws, using and undertaking research to provide high quality, efficient and evidence based solutions specific to local needs which promote health, prevent deterioration and reduce the inequalities experienced within areas of deprivation.

4 Contact us

For further information on the creation of KMMS and to support our plan to create something transformative for
health and clinical education in Kent and Medway please contact Debra Teasdale, Dean of the Health &
Wellbeing Faculty, Canterbury Christ Church University
(debra.teasdale@canterbury.ac.uk) or Dr Peter Nicholls,
Dean of KentHealth, University of Kent (p.j.nicholls@kent.ac.uk)

This entry was posted in news, our-news, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.