YOUNGSTERS growing up in England’s most deprived areas are being held back from a career in medicine, the doctors’ union warned yesterday.

The British Medical Association (BMA) is concerned that 80 per cent of all medical students in Britain come from just 20 per cent of the country’s schools.

It is calling for all secondary schools to offer triple science — separate GCSEs in biology, chemistry and physics — to students who request it, an academic option favoured by the majority of medical schools.

The BMA said its analysis has found that fewer schools in deprived areas offer the subjects separately.

BMA medical students committee co-chair Charlie Bell said: “The chance of becoming a doctor should not be limited because of the failure of some schools to offer the qualifications that pupils need to apply for medical school — and the failure of universities to alter grade requirements accordingly.

“At a time when the government’s decision to scrap educational maintenance grants will create further barriers to low-income students becoming doctors it is vital that young people who wish to pursue medicine must be encouraged and supported, whatever their background.”