Allocation of Funding
Allocation year
Medical ACT funding is distributed to the Boards via NES. Any changes to the funding are notified annually by the Scottish Government prior to the start of a new financial year. Distribution of funding is made according to an allocation model. The funding is regarded as a contribution towards the NHS Boards’ costs of delivering clinical teaching to medical students, but the funding is not designed to reimburse the full costs incurred by Boards.
In 2023, the total Medical ACT budget was £119.4m, which represents an ongoing increase over several years primarily due to investment by the Scottish Government in additional student places (see table below for details), along with a focus on developing medical education in primary care.
Programme for Government (PfG) outlines the growth in the medical workforce anticipated for NHS Scotland, which aspired to fund an extra 100 medical student places for each year of this parliamentary term. The first cohort was implemented for the intake in 2021-22 academic year, with an additional 100 places coming into the system during 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Widening access places
An extra 30 places at University of Aberdeen as part of the GP Enhanced Programme (GPEP) and 30 places at University of Glasgow as part of the COMET programme (Community Orientated Medical Experience Track) entered their final year in 2023-24. In addition, a further 35 students entered year 1 of the Edinburgh HCP-Med Programme; this is a 5-year graduate entry medical programme with a primary care focus, aimed towards recruiting established health care professionals. The programme began with 25 students annually in 2020-21, with the first cohort of graduates expected at the end of academic year 2024-25.
The Medical ACT budget has increased steadily in recent years, initially as a result of an expansion in student numbers between 2020-21 and 2023-24. Thereafter, a further increase during 2023-24 was due to an inflationary pay award received from the Scottish Government.
