Would-be first minister Kate Forbes has pledged to increase the number of university places north of the border for Scots to study medicine, if she is chosen to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.
The current Scottish Finance Secretary said she would seek to have a conversation with the country’s five medical schools “with the aim of increasing the number of spaces for Scottish-based medical students at our universities”.
The SNP leadership candidate insisted: “Bluntly we will have an ongoing crisis in the NHS if we don’t recruit many more doctors.”
Ms Forbes faces Scottish Health Secretary Huzma Yousaf and former Scottish Government minister Ash Regan in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.
Speaking about the plan, Ms Forbes said: “There’s clear evidence that Scottish medical students who qualify from a Scottish university are much more likely to stay in Scotland when they graduate.
“From my initial conversations with frontline medics, there is a strong rationale for growing more of our own talent here.”
Noting the competition for places to study medicine at university is already “very high”, Ms Forbes said that this demonstrated there are plenty of well-qualified Scottish pupils keen to pursue a career in medicine”.
She continued: “If I am elected first minister I would like to have significant discussions with medical schools and their universities regarding actual numbers and the speed at which things can be scaled up.
“This would form part of a wider conversation – other health professionals from nurses to psychologists to speech therapists are all part of the picture, and we mustn’t forget about them either.”
