STUDENTS enrolled onto a new postgraduate medicine course will be entitled to a bursary of up to £16,000 if they commit to work in the NHS in Scotland for at least four years after qualifying.
The grant funding will be offered to eligible students from England, Scotland and Wales.
It means that students accepted on to the new four-year ScotGEM course - which allows those with degrees in other subjects to train as a doctor after graduating - can apply for an optional bursary of £4,000 a year. However, in exchange for the cash, they will be required to work for the NHS in Scotland for one year for every £4,000 bursary payment they received. The Scottish Government will also cover the tuition fees for the Scottish and non-UK EU students.
The "return of service" arrangement, sometimes known as bonding, is used in other countries and has been used for dentistry training in Scotland. It has been devised to help alleviate a brain drain of junior doctors heading abroad or leaving Scotland for other NHS training posts.
In 2015, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow revealed 16.6 per cent of those graduating in medicine from Scottish universities had gone overseas within three years. This compared to 7.6 per cent of new medics south of the Border.
However, Mita Dhullipala, chair of BMA Scotland's medical students' committee chair said they were concerned about students being "tied in". He said: "We have long been advocating for the need to widen access to medical schools and to ensure that Scotland is an attractive place for doctors to train and work. We were pleased to see that applications will open for the new graduate level medicine course this autumn, and that the Scottish Government will pay the tuition fees for eligible students. However, we are concerned about the steps taken by the Scottish Government to introduce optional bursaries to students who agree to work in Scotland's NHS for a certain period of time. In our view, the Scottish Government should be concentrating on improving the experience of doctors in training, rather than tying new graduates in."
Applications for the the 40 places on the ScotGEM course open in September, with the degree launching in 2018/19. It will be hosted by the universities of Dundee and St Andrews with support from the University of the Highlands and Islands, and will have a particular focus on general practice and rural working.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “I’m pleased to be able to offer these bursaries for students on our ScotGEM course who are willing to commit a certain part of their service to Scotland’s NHS. I hope this will encourage students to consider this course as a route into a medical career. Along with the free tuition for eligible students, this represents an attractive package for potential applicants.”
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