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Medical academic staff

August 2005

Medical academic staff are doctors employed by universities, charities and medical schools to provide teaching, research and NHS clinical services. They:

• manage the teaching of our future doctors by organising medical school admissions, setting the medical school curriculum, assessing students and ensuring fitness to practise;
• research and implement innovations in medical practice and treatments for the benefit of patients (for which the UK has a worldwide reputation); and
• provide clinical leadership in the NHS, often practising in the most well-respected centres of excellence in their clinical specialty, and driving organisational change.

They normally hold honorary NHS contracts as well as a university contract, which means that there is a need for the two employers to work closely together.

There have been unprecedented increases in the number of medical undergraduates but this is taking place alongside a declining number of medical academic staff. This is a trend that needs to be reversed, as continued falls in the number of academics will adversely affect the NHS. They now account for 8 percent of the NHS consultant workforce, a fall from 11 per cent ten years ago.

However, until the serious problem of recruitment and retention of medical academics is addressed, there will be insufficient staff to provide any new medical schools with teachers and the Government's plans to educate and train our own vital extra doctors for the NHS will not succeed.