Tomorrow's doctors, here today

New training initiatives in UK universities are boosting the number of doctors in the country ? and the diversity of the practitioners. Alex McRae reports

Catering college is not usually the first port of call for fledgling doctors, but to Robert Lee, a trained chef and one of the 130 undergraduates about to start at the spanking new Peninsula Medical School in Exeter and Plymouth, the transition from chef's hat to white coat is not so unlikely. "I've heard that a lot of surgeons love cooking – maybe there's a link between the stress of a busy kitchen and the stress of the operating table," he says.

Armed with GCSEs and a lot of determination, Robert completed a rigorous course to get his sciences to A-level standard before being accepted. At 26, married, with a six-year-old daughter, he is one of a growing number of medical students who defy the stereotype of the fresh-faced, well-heeled science whizz.

Britain's ageing population desperately needs more doctors. To serve the needs of patients with a dwindling workforce, two new medical schools, the Peninsula and the University of East Anglia, open this September. Next year, partnerships between Brighton and Sussex, and Hull and York universities are scheduled, providing yet more opportunities for would-be medics to get qualified. With the extension of existing medical schools, this means that between 1998 and 2005, there should be a much-needed 60 per cent increase in the total numbers of places available.

Alongside these new places are graduate entry schemes and access programmes. The aim is not just to boost numbers, but also to broaden diversity in what has traditionally been a white, middle-class profession. Graduates without science degrees are joining courses such as that at St George's in London – the idea being that students who come independently to medicine later in life may be more focused than those sixth-formers who have committed themselves with less experience. Before embarking upon training, students often take an intensive one-year course designed to get them up to scratch in sciences, such as the successful programme at West Anglia College in King's Lynn, where 40 per cent of students are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But do these unorthodox students have as much to offer, once qualified, as the traditionally trained doctors? Michael Powell, the voice of the bosses at Britain's top teaching hospitals and executive secretary of the Council of Heads of Medical Schools, thinks so. He argues that although the expense of the state shelling out for doctors to study for a first degree means that medical conversion courses are "not necessarily the ideal", choosing to go into medicine later does have its advantages. "People skills are very important in medicine today, and good A-levels don't necessarily make good doctors. In terms of analysing complex information and communication skills, an earlier degree can help."

Interestingly, the number of mature students and graduates at the Peninsula makes up 42 per cent of freshers, while at UEA half of all medical students are graduates and 18 per cent have done access courses. It's tempting to see a link between this new breed of medic and the teaching methods at the new schools, which were created from scratch and based upon the influential report, Tomorrow's Doctors – a report which encouraged an integrated approach to training doctors. At the Peninsula, the dissection of cadavers to teach anatomy to quivering students will be scrapped in favour of 3D computer models of living organs, and traditional lectures will be replaced with group sessions in which the students can question experts and talk to a patient and the doctor treating them.

At Guy's, King's and St Thomas's medical school in London, a pioneering outreach scheme tries to ensure that promising students such as Robert don't fall through the net. Last year, nine students from disadvantaged schools in London began a six-year training; now, 20 more have enrolled. In spite of starting with lower A-level grades than the other youngsters, some outreach students have achieved higher marks in their summer exams, according to senior lecturer Dr Pamela Garlick. "They've integrated to the extent that some lecturers couldn't tell which were which," she says.

It looks as though innovation is coursing through what once seemed to be one of the stuffier areas of higher education.

education@independent.co.uk