Foreword

Welcome to the 3^rd Medical ACT Annual Report which provides an overview of the performance management and distribution of Medical ACT funding during Financial Year 2021-22.

This was a busy period for Medical ACT as the impact of COVID-19 was still ongoing for both NHS Boards and Medical Programmes.  The growth in undergraduate medical school places, albeit with additional funding provided from the Scottish Government mid-year, proved challenging for Health Boards to ensure that all funds were spent in year and high quality undergraduate medical education was maintained across all student cohorts.

Ongoing work to more clearly define the rules and regulations around Medical ACT processes continued. We were pleased to have significant engagement with this work from academic, finance and placement board stakeholders. We concluded this process in late March 2022 with a summary event. We are mindful that Medical ACT is a complex “machine” and ongoing work to refine the remit of Medical ACT is still needed, particularly as medical undergraduate numbers continue to grow. Initiatives to increase capacity for student placements and accommodation infrastructure will be important to consider going forwards.

Within our own team, there were changes to key team members during this time; we welcomed Dawn Mann as our new acting Medical ACT Manager in November 2021, to cover the secondment of Theresa Savage to the NES Digital team and Emma Stewart as Medical ACT Administrator to replace Liz Johnstone who retired in March 2022. We would like to extend our thanks to both Theresa and Liz for all their hard work, along with our best wishes for their change in roles.

We hope you enjoy this report, and we would be pleased to receive any queries or comments regarding the content via medicalACT.nes@nhs.scot