THE NHS will fund a further 54 medical students in the North West from September 2025, which means more medics will be training locally for the region’s hospitals and surgeries.

The extra medical places are in addition to the 105 medical places announced earlier this year in the North West.

The start of the 2025 academic year will also see new medical places at the brand new £5 million Pears Cumbria School of Medicine in Carlisle.

The school is being opened by the University of Cumbria, in partnership with Imperial College London. Funding for the school has been donated by the Pears Foundation.

Chris Cutts, Regional Director of Workforce, Training and Education at NHS England North West, said: “The increase means that more students will be able to take up medicine at universities that are close to home. Earlier this year, we announced 105 additional medical places in the North West for September 2024. Now we’re planning an additional 54 for the September 2025 start.

“These extra places are just the start. Now there is more to do as we move ahead with the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commitment to double medical school places by 2031.

“The courses are hugely popular and competitive and it is brilliant that these talent pipelines are being created. This is all about training the next generation of doctors and investing in the NHS.

“The location of these schools in our part of the country will help ensure medical school places are available where they are most needed, including training much-needed additional doctors for the North West, which is a great place to live and work and because of this we do attract a large number of students.”

Eight of the new North West medical places are at the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, a unique partnership between the University of Cumbria and Imperial College London.

The school will open its doors in autumn 2025 and welcome its first 50 graduate-entry medical students to the University of Cumbria’s Fusehill Street Campus in Carlisle.

Professor Mary Morrell, Head of The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, said: “The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine team are grateful to have received additional medical student places as part of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. We are excited to welcome students in August 2025 to our new bespoke and innovative graduate entry medical school. Working in partnership with NHS providers in Cumbria, the School will enable even more students to study Medicine in the region.”

Medical places in the North West for 2025 have been increased at Edge Hill University (13), the University of Central Lancashire (6), the University of Chester (5), Pears Cumbria School of Medicine (8), Lancaster University (5), the University of Liverpool (13), and the University of Manchester (4).

The NHS has announced 350 extra medical school places across the country for the academic year 2025/26.

Last year, the NHS set out its Long Term Workforce Plan, backed by more than £2.4 billion in government funding. It outlines how the NHS will recruit and retain hundreds of thousands more staff over the next 15 years – delivering the biggest training expansion in the health service’s history.

One of the key commitments is doubling the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 by 2031, and levelling up the geographic training of places to help tackle unequal access to services.