New opportunities for future rural medics following tri-partite agreement

The agreement will see ScotGEM students provided with a base and access to UWS’s clinical skills facilities in Dumfries. The partnership will exploring further opportunities for collaboration including broader access for UWS students to participate in ScotGEM through the development of new articulation pathways.

ScotGEM is Scotland’s first graduate entry medical programme, with the programme working in partnership with four NHS boards. Designed to develop doctors interested in a career as a generalist practitioner within NHS Scotland, with an emphasis on rural needs. The first ‘Crichton Cohort’ will see 17 students being taught at UWS’s Dumfries campus.

Professor Nigel Seaton, Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor at Dundee, said, “We are delighted to commit to this partnership and to bring Dundee expertise to bear on efforts to allow graduates to train as doctors and to address the particular need for GPs in rural areas.

“ScotGEM has proved immensely successful in doing just that since it was launched and I look forward to seeing this partnership develop in future years.”

Professor James Miller, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of UWS, said, “We are excited for the new Crichton Cohort and all that they will contribute as well as the possibilities of future collaboration between all three universities that can produce innovative new pathways into medicine.”

Professor Dame Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at St Andrews, added,  “ScotGEM is a great asset to patients and healthcare partners in Scotland, including in the vital role of delivering medicine in rural settings to challenge and improve healthcare practice. We see this collaboration as a really good example of how Scottish universities can work so well together.”