Newly qualified doctor 'wanted to stay local'

Alfie Wain said working as a doctor "feels very surreal"

Almost half of the first intake of students from the Kent and Medway Medical School (KMMS) who graduated this summer are choosing to stay and work in south-east England.

Newly qualified doctor, Alfie Wain grew up in Kent and said being able to study locally gave him the confidence to apply for the course.

Now working in the Medway Maritime Hospital, he said: "I wanted to stay local, I wanted to help out the people around me and just be able to do something for the community."

Dr Wain said: "I did a placement here as a medical student and I really enjoyed it. I thought the doctors were incredible."

Dr Wain said working as a doctor "feels very surreal. I'm still quite new and adjusting to the role, but it feels great"

KMMS is the region's first medical school and is a joint collaboration between Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent. It opened in September 2020 during the Covid 19 pandemic.

The school says it aims to give opportunities to people who want to become doctors, especially those from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the medical profession.

The point of the medical school, according to it's dean, Prof Chris Holland, is to give opportunities to "people who wish to become doctors and have that aspiration"

Prof Chris Holland, the founding dean of Kent and Medway Medical School, described Dr Wain as one of our "ambassadors for what we've aimed to achieve here".

He said Dr Wain said he would not have gone to medical school if it had not been for KMMS.

"I know he's now able to say I wouldn't be a doctor if it wasn't for us.

"That is the whole point of our medical school being here, not just supplying new doctors to Kent and Medway, which we wouldn't otherwise have, but giving that opportunity to young and not so young people who wish to become doctors and have that aspiration."

The medical school has now introduced new postgraduate courses including a master's in clinical education which the first of its kind to be offered in south-east England.