Chester is going to benefit from funding that will secure more medical school places.

An NHS training boost will provide The University of Chester with additional places, leading to a more robust future workforce in healthcare.

The University of Chester and several locations in the northwest will partake in a total of 350 extra medical school places across England, funded by the government for the academic year 2025/26.

The region is getting 54 places, with five of them assigned to Chester.

Other institutions gaining from this arrangement include Edge Hill University obtaining 13 places, the University of Central Lancashire six places, Pears Medical School in Cumbria, eight places, Lancaster University, five, the University of Liverpool, 13 and the University of Manchester, four places.

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Chester North and Neston, Councillor Simon Eardley, said: "I’m delighted that The University of Chester has, alongside others, been chosen to train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

"This demonstrates the government’s commitment to the NHS to ensure we have a dedicated workforce in place to boost care for patients, not just here in Chester, but across the country."

The distribution of places arrives as part of the NHS' Long-Term Workforce Plan which was launched last year, backed by over £2.4 billion in government funding.

The plan envisions recruiting and retaining hundreds of thousands of staff over the coming 15 years, marking the largest training expansion in NHS history.

It includes a commitment to double the medical school places in England to 15,000 by 2031 while levelling up geographic training to combat unequal access to services.

The Office for Students (OfS) has thus allocated the 350 extra places for the 2025/26 academic year.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins, lends her support to the initiative, as she said: "Thanks to the Government’s plan for a faster, simpler and fairer healthcare system, the NHS now has record funding, and a record number of doctors.

"I want to make sure that we will have the medical professionals we will need in the years ahead.

"That’s why we are delivering the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, and doubling the number of medical school places, so we can train the next generation of world-class doctors to offer patients the highest-quality care."