Existing vacancies

73 professors 118 senior lecturers and readers 136 lecturers

Dr Colin Smith, chairman of the BMA's medical academic committee, said the decision to cut funding made little sense given that the government is trying to expand medical schools to train thousands of extra doctors.

He said the funding cuts and redundancies will make it much more difficult for the government's targets to be met.

Existing shortage

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that clinical medicine is already suffering shortages with an estimated 300 posts currently vacant.

Dr Smith said: "It will mean that for some schools, they will have to rethink how they will manage the expanding number of students."

Research funding has been cut at some medical schools following a review of spending by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

A spokesman for the council said: "Every five years or so we carry out a research assessment exercise to assess the quality of research across the UK.

There needs to be a rethink by government

Dr Colin Smith, BMA

"Funding has gone up but the way it is distributed has changed with the result that some universities have done better than others."

While overall medical school funding has increased by �2.6m or 1.9% as a result of the review, some departments have lost out to the tune of millions of pounds.

According to the Higher Education Funding Council, research grants to Guys, King's and St Thomas's Medical School have fallen by �500,000.

However, Queen Mary's Medical School in London has seen grants fall by �2m.

Dr Smith criticised the funding review and the decision to reduce grant levels at some centres.

"We would like to see the formula redone or additional money put in.

"It is silly and ludicrous that the best performers are punished. There needs to be a rethink by government with the medical schools whether they can now with the current staffing levels fulfil the need for expanding medical schools."

Target achievable

A spokesman for the Department of Health said it remained on course to meet its target for extra doctors despite problems at universities.

"Students starting medical school in the next few years will not qualify as doctors for another 10 years.

"We are taking a number of measures to achieve our target of 15,000 extra doctors in the next five years, which include international recruitment, flexible working, providing incentives for doctors who have stop practising to return to medicine and flexible retirement packages. We are well on course to meet the target."

However, Shadow Health Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP said: "Patients, who deserve far better public services, will ultimately suffer from the government's lack of planning for the training of new doctors.

He added: "Without putting in place the required teaching staff it will be impossible to produce any more trained doctors."