The Roots of Success
1962 to 1975
1962
Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) opens.
1965
Theo Chalmers becomes Dean of the School of Clinical Research and Postgraduate Teaching.
1965
Royal Commission on Medical Education is set up.
1968
Royal Commission on Medical Education reports.
1969
Senate House votes by 407 to 69 to establish the School of Clinical Medicine.
1969
Clinical School Planning Committee is established, chaired by Sir Frank Young.
1972
Stage Two of the new Addenbrooke’s Hospital opens.
1974
Jeremy Howe becomes Secretary of the School.
1975
The new Faculty of Clinical Medicine is established.
Royal Commission on Medical Education
Set up in 1965 and chaired by Alexander Todd, the Royal Commission on Medical Education was asked to examine past and present patterns of medical care in Britain, forecast how many doctors would be needed to provide this care, and recommend how medical education could be restructured to deliver these doctors. The Commission took evidence from 400 individuals and organisations and reported its findings in 1968. Running to 400 pages, the Todd Report was a formidable document. It said that, without a substantial increase in the number of medical graduates, Britain faced a shortfall of 10,000 doctors by 1976. The radical report recommended far-reaching changes to the undergraduate curriculum, postgraduate training, and the siting of medical schools. While many of its proposals were opposed by medical traditionalists, the government accepted the recommendation to establish several new clinical schools including at Cambridge, Southampton and Leicester.
Lord Alexander Robertus Todd OM PRS FRSE.
Royal Commission on Medical Education
Set up in 1965 and chaired by Alexander Todd, the Royal Commission on Medical Education was asked to examine past and present patterns of medical care in Britain, forecast how many doctors would be needed to provide this care, and recommend how medical education could be restructured to deliver these doctors. The Commission took evidence from 400 individuals and organisations and reported its findings in 1968. Running to 400 pages, the Todd Report was a formidable document. It said that, without a substantial increase in the number of medical graduates, Britain faced a shortfall of 10,000 doctors by 1976. The radical report recommended far-reaching changes to the undergraduate curriculum, postgraduate training, and the siting of medical schools. While many of its proposals were opposed by medical traditionalists, the government accepted the recommendation to establish several new clinical schools including at Cambridge, Southampton and Leicester.
Lord Alexander Robertus Todd OM PRS FRSE.
The development of the School is critically dependent on the partnership with the NHS. A medical school’s laboratory is the NHS.
Sir Keith Peters, Regius Professor of Physic 1987-2005
Debate, Determination and Diplomacy
In 1946, the University established a School of Clinical Research and Postgraduate Teaching, but medical students still had to leave Cambridge for the clinical component of their undergraduate training, generally going to London or Oxford.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, the University’s General Board repeatedly considered – and rejected – calls to establish an undergraduate clinical medical course at Cambridge. Arguments centred on financial, administrative and constitutional concerns.
Opponents feared that an undergraduate clinical course would disturb the University’s educational balance, shifting it in favour of medical subjects. They argued that, at a time of national financial stringency and without improved hospital services in Cambridge, the time was not right. The building of the new Addenbrooke’s Hospital on Hills Road, coupled with the Todd Report, finally tipped the scales.
Strong in foundational medical sciences, clinical research and with access to first-class clinical facilities at the new Addenbrooke’s Hospital, the University had an extraordinary opportunity to develop medical education along the lines recommended by the Todd Report. An undergraduate clinical course would give Cambridge students access to local clinical training, the General Board argued. It would also bring reputational benefits and help the nation train the additional doctors it urgently needed.
With the structure of medical education under examination, the University chose to act. In June 1969, after decades of determined debate and diplomacy, members of the Senate voted 407 to 69 to finally establish an undergraduate clinical school at Cambridge.
Senate House.
Planning and Partnership
In November 1969, the General Board established the Clinical School Planning Committee to give advice and recommendations on the new undergraduate clinical school. Chaired by Sir Frank Young, its remit spanned student intake, the curriculum, staffing, administration and buildings.
From the outset it was clear that the success of Cambridge’s new intensive and highly integrated course would depend on the University and Addenbrooke’s Hospital working together for patients, students and research. The existing partnership between the NHS and the University was strengthened by the new School’s administrative structure, the decision to confer University status on hospital staff who taught Cambridge students, and the shared belief that excellent clinical teaching and excellent patient care go hand in hand.
[The new School of Clinical Medicine] will make use of the remarkable opportunities and the understanding of education, science and the humanities which have evolved in Cambridge.
Many of us here feel that, apart from making an important and unique contribution to medical education, this will itself reflect advantageously on the scientific activity of the University as a whole.
Joseph Mitchell, Regius Professor of Physic 1957-1975, speaking at the Cambridge Medical Graduates' Society dinner in July 1969
[The new School of Clinical Medicine] will make use of the remarkable opportunities and the understanding of education, science and the humanities which have evolved in Cambridge.
Many of us here feel that, apart from making an important and unique contribution to medical education, this will itself reflect advantageously on the scientific activity of the University as a whole.
Joseph Mitchell, Regius Professor of Physic 1957-1975, speaking at the Cambridge Medical Graduates' Society dinner in July 1969
