The Hull York Medical School (HYMS) is a medical school in England which took its first intake of students in 2003. The school was opened as a part of the British Government's attempts (under the Labour Party) to train more doctors, which also saw Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Peninsula Medical School and University of East Anglia Medical School open their doors. As anyone knows who has visited our facilities in either Hull or York, HYMS is not the first medical school on either site. Both cities had schools in the nineteenth century, but neither of them survived the changes wrought by the Medical Acts and the foundation of the General Medical Council in 1858. The University of Hull had aspirations for a new medical school from the mid-1970s, but it was only when the decision was taken to found four new medical schools in the UK that this became a reality with the exciting opportunity to combine the strengths of both Hull and York.