The Universities of Exter and Plymouth and the Open University are to put in a joint bid for a medical school covering the South West of England.

The school would include radical new ways of teaching medicine, including distance learning, and would be the first time students could receive all their medical training in the west of England.

The universities are hoping to benefit from the government's plans to train an extra 950 doctors a year to make up for shortages.

The school would be open to graduates who would not have to have a health-related degree.

The universities say this will open up the medical profession to people from different backgrounds.

Placements

Students would have to do a one-year foundation course, run by the Open University.

The course would include placements with residential schools in Exeter and Plymouth.

The proposed school would work with local hospitals and GPs

Exeter and Plymouth universities already offer training and research opportunities to qualified health workers as well as teaching undergraduates from Bristol Medical School.

Students who completed the foundation course successfully would then go on to a more clinically-based training course.

The course would be more emphasis on community placements than on conventional courses, with students having placements at a number of NHS trusts and GP surgeries in the South West.

They would also be given lessons in the latest information technology.

The universities hope to provide about 150 places a year.

They will be submitting their bid in the New Year.

Innovative approach

Professor Janet Grant, professor of education in medicine and director of the Open University's Joint Centre for Education in Medicine, said: "For the South West peninsula, this is a rare opportunity to develop an innovative approach to training doctors in a way that is relevant to our health care system and to the health needs of the community.

"The model would be an international leader."