The UK currently boasts 31 undergraduate medical schools from Aberdeen in the North of Scotland to Brighton on the south coast of England. It may therefore seem strange to learn that calls have been made this week to add to that number. The proposed site for this new medical school is in the normally forgotten bit of Wales in the North.
As I approach the final year of my medical degree, it would be just my luck if the proposal became a reality. I have been arguing for years about this issue just because the whole thing seems to obvious. When Wales decided to go it alone in terms of their NHS, the need for a medical school in North Wales became undeniable. As it stands, students in the existing Welsh medical schools in the favoured south are expected to travel the 175 odd miles to one of the three general hospitals in the North. Because of the appalling road system in Wales, such a comparatively short journey takes a minimum of four hours.The point here is that few medical students in the south have a desire to come North. Granted, some of them will originate from North Wales but the vast majority don't. Before the advent of the Welsh Assembly in 1998, the system was one based on sensible logic. At that time students from the medical schools in Liverpool and Manchester travelled the short distance along the A55 to do their junior doctor training in North Wales. The distance was a fraction of the miles and hours currently expected of students in Swansea and Cardiff.
While pockets of North Wales still house predominantly welsh speaking communities, the majority are not. This renders as rather flimsy prevailing arguments which point to the importance of being able to speak Welsh. Yes, it is helpful but it is not the end of the world if you can't because there are precious few people in Wales who just can't speak any English.
The whole geography underpinning the quest for a separate Welsh NHS presents a mass of contradiction. There are plenty who live on the English side of the border who collect their prescriptions free on the Welsh side. As yet, there is no passport control between England and Wales - if that changes the current queues of English tourists which block the North Wales coastal road for most of the year will get even longer. The forgotten bit of Wales in the middle continues to be serviced by Shrewsbury which was in England the last time I looked. You have to agree, all this makes for a nonsense because either you run your own independent healthcare system or you don't. If the current policy to resist students from England coming to North Wales is to persist, the need for a new medical school in North Wales is stronger than ever.
It has rightly been pointed out that many students such as myself who come from North Wales go to English medical schools and then stay there after graduating. There is nothing wrong with this as such. The obvious downfall is that many of these students will have received a grounding in Welsh due to the current education policy in Wales. This seems to make a mockery of this policy because there won't be much demand for welsh speakers in English hospitals! If such a policy is to reap any benefits, it would surely make more sense to try and keep those students in North Wales. Unless I've overlooked something, the only way to achieve this is to have a medical school in North Wales. Naturally, it would have to be a satellite of Cardiff and Swansea to retain the existing power base but at least it would add a little credibility to current national policy.
I can't speak for other students but my carbon foot print to get to where I am today is absurd. There is no reasonable justification to continue with this daft system. A little common sense here would go a long way..
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