Professor Dame Jane Dacre has been appointed by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care as the independent chair to implement the Medical Education and Training Review. The initiative aims to modernise the UK’s postgraduate medical training system, which has remained largely unchanged since 2003.
Background of the review
The first phase of the review, published in October 2025, was led by Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty and former National Medical Director at NHS England Professor Stephen Powis. It involved extensive engagement, including national listening events, focus groups, roundtables, regional forums, and a national call for evidence.
- Over 8,000 people contributed, including more than 6,000 resident doctors and medical students.
- More than 240 specialty, specialist, and locally employed doctors participated in national listening events.
- 23 national focus groups gathered input from doctors of diverse backgrounds, patients, primary and secondary care stakeholders, multi-professional colleagues, charities, and royal colleges.
The phase 1 report outlined current challenges and made 11 recommendations under 4 key priorities
- Flexible Training: Adapt training to support diverse career paths and personal circumstances.
- Bridging Service and Education: Integrate patient care delivery with educational development.
- Ending Recruitment Bottlenecks: Address delays in specialty training that harm careers and service delivery.
- Rebuilding Inclusive Teams: Ensure doctors feel valued and supported at every stage.
The report noted risks with major changes but emphasised that the gap between the current system and modern needs justifies action, and trade-offs must be managed transparently.
Professor Dacre’s role and vision
Professor Dame Jane Dacre, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, will lead the implementation phase. She will collaborate with doctors, the General Medical Council, Medical Schools Council, Royal Colleges, other clinical professionals, patients, and managers.
In her statement, she said: “In 2003, we created the medical education and training system we still use today. A system designed in an era of dial-up internet and Blockbuster is not the one we need in the age of artificial intelligence and Netflix.
The world has moved on but medical education and training hasn’t kept up. Everybody agrees radical change is needed, and I want the next generation to experience a new approach that ensures we have resident doctors who flourish, who are trained where patients need them and who are better treated by the system.
We want to support all resident doctors to feel valued and to aspire to excellence. To make the NHS fit for the future, we need to reshape how we train doctors who are key to the future NHS and we need to start now.
This next step is not further diagnosis, but a professionally led approach to turning the findings so far into meaningful improvement and reform.”
Support from NHS leadership
The implementation is sponsored by Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer, and Professor Meghana Pandit, National Medical Director at NHS England.
Professor Pandit said: “Dame Jane’s appointment will move us forward quickly. She will provide trusted professional leadership and take the NHS collectively towards a better medical training regime that is fit for the middle of the 21st century. It is time to stop admiring the problem and start fixing it. Jane is the ideal person to do that.”
Professor Whitty added: “The first phase of the medical training review identified many areas training can be improved. Professor Dacre has the experience across the medical profession that makes her well placed to guide this important work as independent Chair.”
Next steps
Resident doctors deliver expert and compassionate care daily across NHS services. As healthcare evolves to meet changing population needs, training must equip doctors with relevant skills.
The next phase will involve collaborative design of reforms with medical royal colleges, postgraduate deans, the General Medical Council, NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, patient groups, and doctors at all training stages. Goals include
- Improving working lives of resident doctors
- Enhancing career progression and flexibility
- Supporting the highest standards of patient care
The appointment in March 2026 marks a shift from diagnosis to action in addressing longstanding issues in postgraduate medical education and training, signalling a commitment to radical reform to better support resident doctors and meet modern NHS demands.