Lord Patel (CB)

My Lords, I might end up sounding like a broken record, but I hope it is still playing well. I will declare my interests, although they are probably irrelevant. I am an emeritus professor at the University of Dundee and have previously been its chancellor. I am a fellow of the several royal medical colleges, and I am associated with several universities in the United Kingdom that have medical schools. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, on her most eloquent and powerful argument for Queen Mary, Malta to be considered a special case—and she just about succeeded in doing so. Besides that, the broken record bit about me goes back to UK medical graduates. Some 7.6% of graduates of United Kingdom universities are overseas citizens, but they are all trained in the same curriculum and with the same degree as from UK universities. There are several universities that take these students; there are too many to list them all. The overseas campuses of UK universities of course have the same curriculum because the GMC has recognised the institution and therefore its curriculum. The GMC does not give recognition to any training programmes that do not have the same curriculum for graduates. Whether it is a campus or it is associated with the university, the curriculum is what the GMC approves and, in doing so, it therefore approves the institutio;n. There are other UK university campuses overseas. Newcastle has 107 trainee doctors in Malaysia. I am told by the GMC that Barts London has a university association in Malta that has 69 graduates—and, as we have heard, Queen Mary in London has had a total of 147 graduates from there. Southampton medical school is approved for a medical course in Germany with 23 candidates. St George’s London, as we have heard, had quite a small number; I was told it was nine, but the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, said it was seven. There are two more schools that are seeking GMC approval: Swansea in Mauritius and Exeter in Athens. I have no doubt that other medical schools will also jump on the same bandwagon and that, after today’s debate, they will make sure that their curriculum is similar to those followed in the UK so that the degrees from their overseas campuses are also recognised. I have no objections to any of those—as I said, the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, made a very strong case for Queen Mary in Malta—but I do point out that, if we add these all up, we will increase the priority groups that will challenge UK medical graduates further. That is the only case I am making.