Paul A Tiffin, Jonathan S Dowell, John C McLachlan
Tiffin P A, Dowell J S, McLachlan J C.
Widening access to UK medical education for under-represented socioeconomic groups: modelling the impact of the UKCAT in the 2009 cohort
BMJ 2012; 344 :e1805
doi:10.1136/bmj.e1805
Re: Widening access to UK medical education for under-represented socioeconomic groups: modelling the impact of the UKCAT in the 2009 cohort
Whilst the UKCAT seemingly provides a more level playing field for those seeking entry to the medical profession (1), it does nothing for the A Level students who will never consider medicine as a potential career choice in the first place. Many 16 and 17 year old will never have been exposed in a personal capacity to medical professionals. They will attend schools where their peers and teachers have not been exposed to such professionals either. The profession is closed to them by virtue of it not even occurring to them or their teachers as a realistic possibility. It simply is not on their radar.
Whilst it is laudable that the application of UKCAT improves the demographic mix of students becoming doctors, the students getting to the application stage are already a subsection of any ‘disadvantaged’ population. Although programmes such as the Extended Medical & Dental programme at Kings College London (2) have gone some way to addressing this disparity, many talented potential doctors will not even get as far as putting medicine on their UCAS form and this is the real problem.
Helen Atherton
National School of Primary Care Research Fellow
University of Oxford
Andrew D. Beggs
Specialist Registrar General Surgery
London Deanery
1. Tiffin PA, Dowell JS, McLachlan JC. Widening access to UK medical education for under-represented socioeconomic groups: modelling the impact of the UKCAT in the 2009 cohort. BMJ 2012;344:e1805.
2. Garlick PB, Brown G, Rees J, Greenough A. Broadening access to medicine: The extended medical degree programme at King's. BMJ 2008;336(7656):1264.
Competing interests: No competing interests