Professor Dame Jane Dacre has pledged to bring the UK’s outdated “dial‑up” era medical training system firmly into the modern age, after being appointed to lead the Medical Education and Training Review on behalf of NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Her appointment marks the start of the next phase of one of the most significant reforms to postgraduate medical education in decades, with plans to address long‑standing issues that have left trainees overstretched, undervalued and stuck in rigid training pathways.
The first phase of the review, published last year, examined the state of the UK’s postgraduate medical training system, generating more than 8,000 responses from doctors, educators, managers and trainees across the NHS.
The diagnostic report identified systemic challenges and made 11 recommendations across four priority areas:
1. More flexible training
2. Removing the divide between service and training
3. Ending damaging recruitment bottlenecks
4. Rebuilding teams where doctors feel valued
Dame Jane said her mission is to ensure the system is “fit for the future”, and that outdated processes no longer stand in the way of workforce sustainability or patient care.
The implementation phase, which Dame Jane will lead, will work across all four UK nations and is formally sponsored by:
- Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England
- Professor Meghana Pandit, National Medical Director at NHS England
This collaborative oversight reflects the UK‑wide importance of the reforms, with changes expected to influence medical schools, specialty training programmes, workforce planning and clinical culture.
Dame Jane and her implementation team will now work closely with practising doctors and trainees and the General Medical Council, as well as the Medical Schools Council, royal colleges and faculties, and managers, educators, and clinical professionals.
This inclusive approach aims to ensure that the voices of those who train, teach and rely on the medical workforce are embedded throughout the redesign process.
Key goals for implementation include:
- aligning service and training demands
- modernising assessment and progression systems
- improving retention and staff experience
- streamlining training routes
- strengthening multidisciplinary working
Professor Dame Jane Dacre said:
“In 2003, we created the medical education and training system we still use today. A system designed in an era of dial up internet and Blockbuster is not the one we need in the age of artificial intelligence and Netflix.
“The world has moved on but medical education and training hasn’t kept up. Everybody agrees radical change is needed, and I want the next generation to experience a new approach that ensures we have resident doctors who flourish, who are trained where patients need them and who are better treated by the system.
“We want to support all resident doctors to feel valued and to aspire to excellence. To make the NHS fit for the future, we need to reshape how we train doctors who are key to the future NHS and we need to start now.
“This next step is not further diagnosis, but a professionally led approach to turning the findings so far into meaningful improvement and reform.”
The review comes amid unprecedented NHS workforce pressures, with shortages across nearly all specialties, rising patient demand and the need for more flexible, sustainable training pathways.
The implementation team is expected to set out detailed timelines, early actions and engagement plans in the coming months.
Image credit: iStock
