Access to medicine pathways to medicine ITQ

NHS England are looking for well-designed programmes of support that will result in increased access to medicine schools and increased knowledge and understanding of pathways through medical school including intercalation and opportunities to undertake research activities, greater access to a network of support, and increased confidence.

The medical profession remains a challenging profession for young people from less advantaged backgrounds to break into, with research consistently showing an over-representation of doctors who were educated at independent schools, which educate only seven per cent of the British population.

Barriers to the profession include the obvious point that entry to medical school is a highly competitive process with high grades required, which students from wealthier backgrounds and independent schools are in a stronger position to achieve relative to their less advantaged peers. There are other factors like the importance of undertaking relevant work experience, soft skills development and receiving informal mentoring and advice that are harder from students from poorer backgrounds to access.

The underrepresentation of talented doctors from less advantaged backgrounds, who have the potential to pursue a medical career but may not be able to make competitive applications for medical schools, means a waste of talent that the NHS could otherwise be benefiting from. This makes widening access to the medical profession crucially important in the coming years, particularly as the health service builds back after the impact of the pandemic.

Full details and the tender documents can be downloaded from the following link:-

https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome

Additional information:

To express interest and participate in the tender, please register and apply via Atamis e-sourcing portal https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome.

Should Tenderers have any queries, or having problems using the portal, they should contact Helpdesk at:

Phone: 0800 9956035

E-mail: support-health@atamis.co.uk