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Five thousand more medical student places should be created – a 50% increase – to make the supply of doctors sustainable, the Medical Schools Council has urged. The lack of medics coming to the UK from Europe was among the reasons why far more needed to be trained, said the Council in a new report calling for 14,500 students. Professor Malcolm Reed said: “It is not that international doctors are not as good as those who qualified in the UK but the question is really whether a highly developed country like the UK should be reliant on other countries for their doctors and nurses.” He said there was no incentive to the Treasury to increase medical student numbers, because there were no training costs for doctors from abroad. The Council acknowledged in the report that there were “significant costs” in increasing the numbers being trained in the UK but added it was “right and realistic to commit to the aim of a significant increase” with a clear timescale for achieving the ambition. Factors that lead the government to keep a tight rein on medical student numbers include expense: it costs £200,000 to train a medical student. Also, placements have to be found within hospitals and surgeries, which would become more difficult with greater numbers. The Council's position echoes those of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal Society of Psychiatrists expressed in their own recent reports.