Government awards Edge Hill University additional medical places to train doctors of the future

EDGE Hill University has been granted new Government funding to create 13 extra medical places to train much needed Doctors. The University; 1 of the largest providers of healthcare education in the North West; has been preparing for an increase in places in the 2025/6 academic year to help address the shortage of doctors in the Region. The increase will ensure the University can continue to play a key role in helping the NHS deliver its Long Term Workforce Plan, which will see the biggest training expansion in its history over the next 15 years.

Clare Austin, Pro Vice Chancellor for Health, Social Care and Medicine, said:- "We have great ambitions for our Medical School so I am delighted by this news. These additional places mean we can drive forward our commitment to develop a new generation of doctors who understand the needs of our local communities and can respond to, and deliver, new models of care."

Currently, Edge Hill has 30 UK undergraduate medical places. An extra 20 announced in October will increase the number to 50 for the 2024/5 academic year; and the additional 13, the highest number awarded in the North West, announced this week brings the total to 63 for 2025/6.

Minal Singh, Director of the Medical School, added:- "Edge Hill is dedicated to widening access to higher education and this significant increase in places over the next couple of years will enable even more students who are under-represented in medicine to pursue their dreams of training to be doctors."

Nationally, 350 extra medical school places have been allocated for the 2025/6 academic year as part of the Government's pledge to double medial school places by 2031. The expansion is particularly targeting areas which have a shortage of doctors such as the North West.

However Edge Hill Vice-Chancellor Dr John Cater thinks more can be done to tackle the deepening NHS crisis and he has previously co-authored a policy proposal, entitled:- 'Student Loans Forgiveness,' with Nuffield Trust and London Economics. He added:- "In my opinion, we should write off tuition fees for certain health professionals once they have completed 10 years of NHS service to recognise their commitment to public service and to stem a dropout crisis among nurses, midwives and other front line staff."

Edge Hill offers a range of innovative programmes that meet the needs of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. Discover more about courses at 1 of the largest providers of health, social care and medicine education in the North West.

Don't buy rhododendron as it's destroying our native wildlife, warns Woodland Trust

THE Woodland Trust is urging gardeners not to buy rhododendron ponticum this spring, as it looks to stem the threat of deadly tree disease and protect our native wildlife. The popular plant may look nice but not only can it carry disease, it is known as an:- "invasive species" which can wipe out huge swathes of native woodland plants; and is particularly troublesome in our rare temperate rainforests - and costs the country millions a year to tackle.

The Woodland Trust alone spent �360,000 over the past year on invasive plant control, which includes:- removing rhododendron which spreads fast and crowds out other plants. It's a time consuming, painstaking process to remove them by root.

Imported rhododendron plants carry a strong risk of arriving with the deadly disease Phytophthora ramorum, which can be fatal to more than 150 plant species. In the UK, the control programme for this disease has resulted in large scale felling of larch plantations which harms our timber industry.

Rebecca Gosling is a tree disease expert at the Woodland Trust and in the build up to INNS Week, says more should be done to tackle the threat of rhododendron ponticum, including action from the Government.

She said:- "Rhododendron ponticum is a real problem for the UK's native plants and trees. It is choking native woodland and shading out characteristic plants, including in important temperate rainforests which cover just 1% of land in the UK. Action must be taken to protect further species and habitats from the same fate. Increased trade and the growing impacts of climate change furthers the likelihood of new species introductions. As a top 5 driver of biodiversity decline, the Government must treat invasive non- native species as a priority issue. A failure to get a grip on these and the pressure this places on struggling wildlife populations, will also make it harder to meet nature recovery targets and halt the decline in species abundance by 2030."

Invasive non-native species (INNS) are animals, plants or pathogens that have been introduced to an area outside their natural range as a result of human activities and not part of the natural spread of species, and cause a negative effect on the environment, population and / or economy.

INNS play a key role in 60% of recorded global species extinctions and are the sole factor responsible for 16% of documented global animal and plant extinctions.

The Trust believes that current measures are not effective at preventing species from establishing in the UK with the rates of INNS establishment increasing since 1960 with no indication that trends are changing. There are an estimated 311 different invasive species in Great Britain alone.

The Trust is asking the public to help protect our native wildlife by not buying and not planting rhododendron ponticum

Together with Wildlife and Countryside Link, is asking the Government to:-

Put the invasives species inspectorate on a proper footing, by increasing the invasive species biosecurity budget to �3 million.

Dedicate a further �3 million to fund a permanent species inspectorate, boosting the capacity of the invasives species inspectorate so that it may carry out increased border inspections to prevent new invasive species entering the UK.

News reports located on this page = 2.

Government awards Edge Hill University additional medical places to train doctors of the future

Don't buy rhododendron as it's destroying our native wildlife, warns Woodland Trust