Problem postcards

Each year money is given to the NHS to ensure that undergraduate medical education is properly supported and those hospitals and practices hosting medics do not do so at a cost to their normal service budgets. This funding is called SIFT--service increment for training (in England and Wales), ACT--additional cost of teaching (in Scotland), or SUMDE--supplement for undergraduate medical and dental education (in Northern Ireland). In regions with several medical and dental schools it can amount to hundreds of millions of pounds. In England and Wales the funding falls into two broad categories: facilities …