NHS workforce plan aims to train thousands more doctors and open up apprenticeship schemes

Thousands more doctors and nurses will be trained every year under proposals in the long term NHS workforce plan,1 to be backed by £2.4bn of funding over the next five years.

The long awaited plan, published on 30 June, projects that the current NHS staffing shortfall of 112 000 will increase to 360 000 by 2037 if nothing is done to tackle recruitment and retention.

The plan’s recommendations include increasing medical school places from 7500 to 10 000 by 2028—aiming to double numbers to 15 000 by 2031, with more places in areas with the most shortages. The first new places will be available from 2025, the report said.

GP training places will increase by 50% to 6000 by 2031, starting with 500 new places from September 2025. The NHS will also consult on introducing four year medical degrees and medical internships to get trainees “on wards and in practices sooner.”

The plan sets out an ambition to increase the number of nursing and midwifery training places to around 58 000 by 2031-32 and to hit a target of 44 000 by 2028-29, …