Designed to address the increasing demand on the healthcare workforce in Scotland, this five-year programme – known as HCP-Med for Healthcare Professionals – aims to offer the flexibility to encourage people from all across Scotland to consider studying to become a doctor.
The programme is exclusively offered to existing healthcare professionals, clinical scientists and veterinary surgeons living and working in Scotland.
It offers an innovative way to retain people within the healthcare workforce and potentially enhance recruitment to shortage specialties in underserved areas of Scotland.
There is a strong emphasis on GP placements to encourage students to pursue careers in General Practice close to where they currently live and work.
UK first
The undergraduate programme – run by the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School – is the first of its kind in the UK, with the first three years being conducted part-time and predominantly online.
The flexibility means students can study in their own time while balancing work and other life commitments.
Alongside the part-time study, students also receive full funding from the Scottish Funding Council making it an attractive route to retrain those already working within the healthcare industry.
After completing their remote studies, students then join the University’s full-time undergraduate medical programme for the final two years, undertaking a range of clinical placements in hospital wards and GP practice.
Widening access
Medical courses often have underrepresentation from students from rural areas and less advantaged backgrounds. By gearing the programme towards experienced professionals, it is opening up a key avenue to help talented people who hadn’t previously considered a career as a doctor.
Calum MacDonald is a graduate from the first cohort of the HCP-Med programme, having started his career as a staff nurse in an intensive care unit in Glasgow.
His experience working in intensive care and subsequent training to become an advanced critical care practitioner – a role he has held since 2016 – led him to consider a career as a doctor.
The programme gave Calum the ability to stay in Glasgow and juggle work and part time study, while also managing family life after becoming a father in his second year.
Now a newly qualified doctor, Calum has secured a foundation post in Glasgow and will rotate across seven specialties.
Following the two-year foundation programme, Calum is considering specialising in anaesthetics or general practice.