Medical Education and Health Care, Is There a Conflict?

It might be thought that the best of Medical Education and the best of Health Care were synonymous, and that what was best for one was best for the other, but it has not always been so, and some may doubt whether it ever will be. The tensions which arise between Medical School and Teaching Hospital staff cannot be dismissed lightly and another area, that of the nature and composition of Medical Education deserves fuller consideration. The difficulties which arise between clinical medical staff employed in the National Health Service and the academic staff, generally of equivalent Consultant rank, who are actually employed through Medical Schools by the Universities, on whose staff they are, are complex. In the last thirteen years, there has been a gradual decline in funds, both from the Exchequer to the N.H.S. and from the University Grants Committee to the Medical Schools. Everybody here is unhappily familiar with the results.