Thousands of doctors ‘out of work’, BMA claims

Thousands of junior doctors in England and Wales are unable to find posts, the British Medical Association has claimed.

The BMA has warned that previous figures may have ‘underestimated’ the problems facing trainee doctors attempting to find work and has urged the Department of Health to address the problem.

According to the BMA’s latest survey, of nearly 700 doctors, almost one in ten had been unable to find work as a doctor in the UK. The Association said that the figure would translate to as many as 3,000 doctors across the UK.

The Department of Health has rejected the claims and described them as “misleading”. However, the Conservatives have accused the government of being “in denial” over the problem.

The BMA also said that over 300 junior doctors had contacted the BMA independently of the survey to say that they had been unable to find posts.

More worryingly, the survey found that around a third (35%) of respondents to the survey were no longer looking for work in the NHS, with many seeking posts in Australia or New Zealand. The BMA said that this equated to a loss of around 900 doctors if the pattern applied across England and Wales.

The BMA said that intense competition for training posts had been the result of an increase in the numbers of doctors graduating from medical school, as well as a rise in the number of overseas doctors hoping to train in the UK. Reforms to the medical training structure have also been blamed for the phasing out of some long-term posts.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Jo Hilborne, chair-elect of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said: “We know there’s a problem, and we’re keen to work with the government to help deal with it. These are people who are desperate to work for the NHS, and have spent years of their lives in training at a huge cost to the taxpayer. Patients’ healthcare needs are growing, the country is still short of doctors, and we should be doing everything we can to prevent their skills from being wasted. Many doctors are on short-term contracts that expire in February, and unless something is done very quickly, we’re going to have the same problems all over again.”

The BMA has called for improved workforce planning and the introduction of a system where overseas doctors do not come to the UK unless they have at least a provisional offer of a training post. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “The government is in denial about this problem and have completely failed to address it. We urgently need to provide more resources to create senior training posts to redress the bottleneck.”

(KMcA)