Medical Education and Research after the Health Service Reforms

The issue of medical education and SIFTR (Special Incentive for Teaching and Research) within the framework of the internal market and the purchaser/ provider separation is discussed. It is proposed that medical education be treated in the same way as the rest of the NHS and that resources follow medical students. The problems of concentrating medical student teaching within “teaching” hospitals and the resulting injustices arising from SIFTR are explored. It is proposed that in order to improve medical education some academic staff concentrate on teaching rather than research, that their performance indicators are similarly related and that SIFTR is abolished and the money distributed more equitably.