Sassoon Eli C, Craig Rhiannon C, O'Brien David G
Education Centre, School of Medicine, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Future Healthc J. 2025 Jun 28;12(3):100278. doi: 10.1016/j.fhj.2025.100278. eCollection 2025 Sep.
With one of the lowest numbers of doctors per capita in Europe, coupled with an ageing UK population, the NHS faces an unprecedented workforce crisis. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) outlined how this will be addressed, headlining a proposed doubling of UK medical school places.
A scoping review utilising the Arksey and O'Malley model searched articles related to increasing UK medical student numbers. A total of 6,217 articles were identified, and 23 were selected for further analysis.
Funding was the most frequently raised concern, followed by educator shortage, limited stakeholder engagement, placement capacity shortage, and failure to support Widening Access agendas. Notably, seven articles were opinion pieces, with only two formal research papers.
Key issues to implementing the current LTWP were identified, and further research to address these challenges and identify potential solutions is urgently required to support evidence-based decision making to influence future workforce plans.
英国人均医生数量在欧洲处于最低水平之一，再加上人口老龄化，国民保健服务体系（NHS）面临前所未有的劳动力危机。NHS长期劳动力计划（LTWP）概述了如何应对这一问题，其中一项主要提议是将英国医学院的招生名额翻倍。
采用阿克西和奥马利模型进行范围审查，搜索与增加英国医学生数量相关的文章。共识别出6217篇文章，选取23篇进行进一步分析。
资金是最常被提及的问题，其次是教育工作者短缺、利益相关者参与度有限、实习能力短缺以及未能支持扩大入学机会议程。值得注意的是，七篇文章为观点文章，仅有两篇正式研究论文。
确定了实施当前LTWP的关键问题，迫切需要进一步研究以应对这些挑战并确定潜在解决方案，以支持基于证据的决策，从而影响未来的劳动力计划。
