Scotland to prioritise Scottish medical students over RUK students.

I think FarNorth, that medical students are capped in all areas in the UK. It’s probably one of the reasons why we continue to have too few doctors, we simply don’t train enough. Of those we do train, many opt to work abroad in places such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada after they complete both their training and their F1 and F2 years. The Blair government increased the number of medic places available in our universities, but it’s still not enough, which is why we need to poach medics from abroad, something I have real difficulties with to be honest.
The conditions of service are so much better for doctors in many other countries that we cannot blame the doctors for choosing a better life style. My own daughter and her husband are both doctors and they seriously considered moving to Australia. It was only the pull of being near family that prevented them from going (we never tried to dissuade them even though we knew how much we’d miss them.)

Yes, Maddyone is correct, the number of medical students is capped. It's false economy, we should be training our own medics, not poaching them from other countries.

If anyone wants to understand why the UK can't retain the doctors it does train, read Adam Kay's book, This is Going to Hurt.