There will be no extra doctors. Places on medical programs are strictly limited. Students in the UK don't automatically get in once they make the required grades, they still need to be offered a place.

This! As long as parents push students by comparing their grades to other (previous year) grades, we can't reverse course.

We should swap to a numeric system but shouldn't just swap an "A" for a "1"; we should show grades as percentiles. Being in the highest 10%/5% is a more meaningful comparison than saying "A" if the meaning of "A" changes over time.