Bringing new doctors to the Portsmouth region
Background
It’s widely known the UK’s health service is under strain.
This is keenly felt in Portsmouth; our region’s hospitals have many workforce gaps and we sit in one of the worst regions in the UK for a shortfall in the number of GPs per patient, with 2,500 people per GP.
Our new partnership with King’s College London (KCL), which will see medical degree training at Portsmouth, is an exciting venture that will allow us to begin improving the future supply of doctors to the local area - and hopefully pave the way to our ultimate goal of establishing our own independent Medical School in the future.
Our new Partnership
KCL is a leading university in training doctors. Together we've formed a partnership approved by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), for a King’s College London (KCL) Graduate Entry Medicine Programme MBBS at the University of Portsmouth from August 2024. It’s a four-year accelerated undergraduate programme, taking graduates of biomedical sciences.
Graduates who have studied at the University of Portsmouth, will be awarded a medical degree from KCL accredited by the General Medical Council (GMC) from as early as August 2028.
Find out more about the benefits of the new medical degree:
The future - a Portsmouth Medical School
This partnership is the first step towards our bigger goal of opening our own independent Medical School.
A Medical School brings with it prestige, and a ‘halo effect’ for the wider University. There are usually uplifts in student interest in related subject areas like nursing, paramedicine and pharmacy, as those areas also benefit from the improved facilities and expertise. For example, evidence suggests that when applicants are looking to study nursing, they’re more likely to choose an institution with a Medical School.
Having a Medical School also boosts our reputation and is likely to help with our rankings - particularly QS.
Further, we’re likely to see better staff recruitment and retention for medicine and related areas.
Our forecasting shows that we will get return on our investment by year 4 of operation, with our current numbers of 54 students a year.
All medical schools in the UK have a government-set cap on the number of students they can take, and new medical schools cannot be opened without Government approval. Our aim is to be ready when the Government’s next call for new Medical Schools takes place.