Health Education England has been accused of undervaluing the role doctors play in the wider NHS after it revealed plans to switch funding to non-medical roles.
The Medical Schools Council said it was concerned about comments made by HEE’s director of strategy and planning Jo Lenaghan in relation to the education and training body’s new 15-year strategic framework.
HEE, which has a £5bn budget, said it would begin transforming the way it plans its future workforce, with a shift in resources to non-medical roles, the creation of new generalist professions and the loss of some specialist medical roles.
Ms Lenaghan queried the historical investment in consultants which she said lacked any evidence that it was based on patient need.
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Iain Cameron, chair of the council, said of her comments: “This undervalues the crucial role that doctors play in situations of clinical complexity and uncertainty, and in taking ultimate responsibility on behalf of the healthcare team for difficult decisions about patient care.”
He said that to have well trained doctors in the UK there needed to be an investment in medical education, adding that an “overwhelming demand” for more doctors was made by the public in response to the consultation on the NHS Plan in 2000.
Professor Cameron said doctors were critical to the move toward seven-day services, and that advances in new developments and therapies required the knowledge and creativity of doctors.
He said: “The increasingly challenging nature of disease, the complexity of therapeutic interventions and the importance of multiprofessional team working and its leadership are all critical elements of medical training.
“Education to the required level of expertise needs to be adequately funded for all health professions.”
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