Survey shows serious shortage of medical academics in the UK

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7335.446

BMJ 2002;324:446 ( 23 February )

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Survey shows serious shortage of medical academics in the UK

Rhona MacDonald, BMJ
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Between 10% and 20% of medical professor and senior lecturer posts and 20% of lecturer posts in the United Kingdom are vacant,according to a recent survey by the Council of Heads of MedicalSchools and Deans of UK Faculties ofMedicine.

The authors point out that this is particularly worrying in that medical education is currently expanding rapidly and so evenmore clinical academics areneeded.

Independent advice obtained by the council suggested that an acceptable level of staff turnover was of the order of 5% to7.5% A rate of over 10% indicated a serious retention and recruitmentproblem.

The situation is more acute in England, where four new medical schools are opening, with a planned increase of 60% in annualintake of undergraduates. Also, nearly 40% of clinical academicstaff are employed in London medicalschools.

UK medical institutions were asked to provide data on the source . . . [Full text of this article]