The General Medical Council (GMC) recently met online with staff from Kent and Medway’s first medical school, Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS), as part of the ongoing quality assurance process run for any new medical school.
This was the GMC’s first ever virtual visit to any medical school and was also a major milestone for KMMS. The visit confirmed that KMMS is meeting the required standards the GMC expects all medical schools in the UK to achieve and it is therefore on track to welcome their first students in September this year.
During the visit the GMC acknowledged the successful recruitment of all key members of the Year 1 staffing body and those they met were well engaged and demonstrated an understanding of the school’s aims and ethos.
The KMMS team has been recruited locally, nationally and internationally and many of them hold clinical positions within Kent and Medway healthcare settings and have been working on the front line during the pandemic. For example, the School’s Founding Dean, Professor Chris Holland, has recently moved to work as an intensive care consultant at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust.
KMMS has been making contingency plans to prepare for the students arrival during the Covid19 pandemic and the GMC recognised that the School’s ‘digital first’ approach has put it in a good position to deliver its Year 1 curriculum during the ongoing pandemic.
The GMC also noted how the school had adapted their curriculum to the local context. The school plans to place its students within Primary Care Networks, community and acute care settings across Kent and Medway and the GMC were pleased to find a real sense of ownership and engagement with local clinical partners.
Widening participation and access to a medical career for all students, regardless of their background, is at the heart of the School’s admissions processes, and the GMC also noted this.
Professor Holland said: ‘This is a major milestone for Kent and Medway Medical School. The GMC’s feedback is a great endorsement of all the work that has been done by my colleagues at KMMS and those at Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent. To have achieved this while we have all been working remotely and during the COVID 19 Pandemic is wonderful.’
KMMS is an exciting collaboration between the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University and builds on our existing high-quality clinical teaching and research strengths.