Gateways guidance: preface
Becoming a doctor remains an inspiring goal for many people. I was fortunate as a teenager - apart from academic achievement there were no special hurdles placed in my way. Six years at two universities led into the NHS and a career I feel passionate about.
History would suggest that medicine will always be oversubscribed, but why should someone with a disability not have the same opportunity to compete and make a contribution to health services?
When I heard about the Gateways Disability Project it seemed to me to be an opportunity to level the playing field. I was keen to be involved as a representative of the Association of UK University Hospitals. I was delighted to be elected to chair the Project Board.
We should, of course, be under no illusion about the demands of both a university course and the training required to become a Consultant or General Practitioner. But students with a wide range of disabilities can achieve the required standards. Patients present an almost infinite variety of problems and disabilities - how reassuring and encouraging it must be if they are sometimes treated by someone who has overcome impairment and can be in a position to help and advise.
Before publication of this document in 2008 there was little guidance for medical schools in responding to or encouraging applications from people with a range of disabilities. There was a great deal of interest in this project and I was delighted to meet all the disabled medical students and doctors who came forward with suggestions and comments.
The advisory guidance resulted from a partnership led by the General Medical Council and financially supported by 11 medical schools. Match-funding was provided through the Development Fund of Gateways to the Professions, set up by the Department for Education and Skills (England), as it then was, to widen participation in professional education.
The Project Board included representatives of the GMC, the medical schools, the BMA Medical Students Committee, Skill: the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, the Equality Challenge Unit for higher education, the Office for Public Management (as agents for the Department) and the Association of UK University Hospitals.
The Project Board commissioned a team led by Professor Janet Grant of the Open University which carried out surveys and interviews and drafted the first version of the advisory guidance to reflect all the comments and suggestions that we received.
It was very rewarding working with all these organisations on this guidance – my thanks to all of them, as well as to all the individuals who contributed their experience and expertise.
The guidance was intended to be advisory, to help medical schools consider how best to encourage medical students. It does not lay down new requirements, quality assurance standards or ‘policies’ from the GMC or any of the other organisations involved. The guidance does, however, refer to the statutory requirements facing medical schools and others involved in medical education as well as providing a wealth of practical suggestions for medical schools to consider.
This guidance was first published in March 2008 and we were pleased by its reception and the number of medical schools who said they would follow our advice. Important developments since then include the publication in September 2009 of a new edition of Tomorrow’s Doctors, the GMC’s outcomes and standards for undergraduate medical education, which incorporates several references to the Gateways guidance and the importance of encouraging disabled students in the study of medicine. In England, Scotland and Wales, the Equality Act 2010 replaces the previous range of laws on discrimination, including the Disability Discrimination Act. The Project Board and the GMC have revised the guidance to reflect these and other developments up to Spring 2010 looking forward to the Act coming into force progressively during the coming months.
I know that medical schools will want to go beyond the statutory requirements to encourage and support disabled students. I hope the advice in this guidance helps to make that happen.
Dr Kathy McLean
Chair – GMC/Gateways Disability Project Board