Are more doctors a cure for UK's ills?

Medical researchers are challenging the UK government's policy of more training for more physicians. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, June 2006, Dr. Karen Bloor, Vivien Hendry and Alan Maynard ask whether more doctors would improve patient health in Britain or just increase costs.

The UK has fewer doctors per capita than most developed countries, but the authors question whether expansion of medical school numbers would necessarily improve healthcare. They claim that the UK might have reached the point where the number of doctors is sufficient to meet the demands of the population. They also ask if other staff such as nurses and radiographers could be substituted more for doctors and therefore save money.

The paper argues that medical workforce planning remains dominated by issues that are poorly managed and measured. The time lag between expanding medical school intake and producing fully trained doctors creates uncertainty and risk, they say.

Expansion of the medical workforce does not necessarily result in an efficient or equitable distribution of doctors, geographically or in terms of specialty, say Dr. Bloor and her colleagues.

The paper warns that expansion may create substantial costs that will be extremely difficult to reverse. "We cannot look at the medical workforce in isolation from other health issues, including financial constraints," said Dr. Bloor.