RCoA response to new legislation to prioritise UK medical graduates

The Royal College of Anaesthetists has responded to the introduction of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill to parliament. The Bill sets out plans to introduce a system of prioritisation for allocation of medical training places.

Dr Claire Shannon, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists said:  

“We are pleased to see the government taking action towards addressing the bottlenecks in specialty training, which are preventing many doctors from progressing their careers and negatively impacting their wellbeing. We hope this will be the first step in a suite of changes to improve both access and experience of medical training.

Alongside this, we remain committed to supporting our many international colleagues and members who work across UK healthcare and bring valuable expertise and insight from around the world to the NHS. We will look to work alongside the government to ensure that International Medical Graduates are supported in their anaesthetic careers.

While we hope this legislation will help to reduce the current bottlenecks for those wishing to embark on specialty training, we need sustained investment in the anaesthetic workforce. Our 2025 Census confirms the national shortage of trained anaesthetists, which is directly impacting patient access to treatment. Resolving this will require an increase in the number of specialty training places and support for all anaesthetists to have the opportunity to progress their careers to independent practice”.  

We will continue to carefully examine the details of this bill and its impact as it progresses.