Aspiring doctors could qualify without a medical degree

The apprentice will see you now: Aspiring doctors could qualify without a medical degree to help those already working in healthcare to train while they work

  • Proposals could see nurses train to become doctors while they are also working
  • Senior medics are drawing up the scheme to increase accessibility and diversity
  • Student doctors warn programme will ‘inadvertently create a two-tier system’


Aspiring doctors could qualify without doing a medical degree under proposals being drawn up by health officials.

The ‘medical doctor apprenticeship’ would help those already working in healthcare, such as nurses or assistants, to train as doctors while they work.

Health bosses, medical schools and the General Medical Council regulator are developing the programme, which is aimed at widening access to medicine.

Currently students have to spend five or six years at medical school doing an expensive degree, including three years of clinical placements, to become doctors.

Students have to spend five or six years at medical school doing an expensive degree, including three years of clinical placements, to become doctors. But a new initiative could help boost accessibility and diversity in the field 

Critics say this restricts entry to the profession to mainly middle-class and well-educated youngsters.

The new apprenticeships would cover the same curriculum as degrees but would be intended to make the profession more accessible and diverse.

Professor Wendy Reid, from the Health Education England training body, told the Health Service Journal: ‘The [difference between an apprenticeship and a degree] will be that people will be working alongside learning, so very similar to traditional apprenticeships where if you are older or you have commitments where you can’t suddenly go off and spend five or six years as a [student], then this is a way of learning differently. 

At the moment this will suit people who have been in work for some time, either in a health service related role or indeed in other work.’ 

Under the plans, when medical doctor apprentices have completed their training they will be put on the medical register by the GMC. But the scheme is likely to prove controversial.

When student members of doctors’ union the British Medical Association were asked for their views on the proposals, one said: ‘[Medical training] is an apprenticeship as much as it can be already, because you’ve got two or three years of preclinical studies and then three years of clinical studies where you’re on placement all the time.

The 'medical doctor apprenticeship' would help those already working in healthcare, such as nurses or assistants, to train as doctors while they work, bosses say

The ‘medical doctor apprenticeship’ would help those already working in healthcare, such as nurses or assistants, to train as doctors while they work, bosses say

‘It’ll inadvertently create a two-tier system, reminiscent of barber surgeons and physicians, and undo the work that’s been done on widening participation – effectively making medical school only an option for those from wealthy backgrounds.’

But a BMA spokesman said: ‘Proposals for a medical doctor apprenticeship that results in doctors educated and trained to the same high standards as current studentships are interesting and worthy of consideration.’