The highlights and benefits of a career as a doctor should be made evident to children at primary school, according to a new report from the Medical Schools Council.

This will help open up the profession to a bigger cross-section of pupils, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, TES reported.

Research has shown that youngsters from less affluent families tend not enter the medical profession as a whole, let alone pursue becoming a doctor.

The Medical Schools Council, an organisation that represents the interests and ambitions of medical schools in the UK, said that this early exposure is important in changing people's attitude to this career.

One of the recommendations set out in the paper is for deeper engagement from stakeholders in encouraging young people who would otherwise overlook becoming a doctor to consider it as a viable option.

Representatives from medical institutions and universities can, for example, do more to work with primary school children, particularly those from disadvantaged families.

"A candidate’s journey to a medical degree starts long before the UCAS application is made," Professor Tony Weetman, chair of the project’s executive group, was quoted by the education news provider as saying.

"The commitment in terms of hard work and academic achievement is of course essential, but before that must come the awareness that studying medicine is an option."

Last year the General Medical Council reported that people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are underrepresented in the medical profession.

Its report revealed that 65 per cent of doctors have a parent who completed a university degree and 33.7 per cent went to private school.

Opening up the profession to a wider sample of the population is something the government is keen on doing.

Two years ago, Alan Milburn, chair of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, commented that the medical profession "still has a long way to go [in] making access fairer, diversifying its workforce and raising social mobility".