Is this a one off expansion?

The NHS Long-Term Plan set out the five-year ambition for service delivery from 2019, but Covid-19 placed unprecedented, unpredicted demands on the NHS workforce

The most recent Spending Review supported an initial boost to medical specialty training posts by 1000 posts over the course of the 3-year spending review, to support three priority areas:

• Elective recovery
• Acute and urgent care
• The response to the Ockenden report

This is in addition to the previous commitments to increase the medical workforce in Cancer and Diagnostics, Mental Health and General Practice, all highlighted as Long-Term Plan priorities. Expansion provides the opportunity to support the NHS in tackling the Covid-19 backlog of elective care, waiting times and fill gaps in local services.

Doctors in training provide significant service whilst training and are therefore a key component of the current workforce, as well as future consultant and GP workforce. As doctors in training progress into higher specialty training, they become more senior decision-makers, more autonomous and able to deliver more complex care. The increases in medical training are modelled and distributed in alignment with population health need, critical to addressing health inequalities.