Addressing the void of entrepreneurship development amongst medical students in the UK

Entrepreneurship and innovation are important skills doctors must be equipped with to face the economic crisis engulfing the NHS. The £30 billion funding gap the NHS will face by 2020 requires doctors who are able to face these upcoming financial and organizational difficulties. Frontline staff are uniquely placed to identify inefficiencies in the health care system and develop solutions to them, so changing the medical school curricula to provide entrepreneurship and innovation development will benefit the NHS. Students can opt into this on an optional basis. The NHS is starting to recognize the importance of developing entrepreneurship and innovation as it has already introduced the Clinical Entrepreneur Programme in 2015. Offering entrepreneurship teaching in medical schools will not only diversify the skills of future health care professionals, but will also empower them with the right mindset to tackle the problems facing the health care system and sustain the NHS.