Doctors warn of job shortages
There is a clear shortage of training jobs for doctors in the UK, the British Medical Association (BMA) warns today.
It attributes the problem to the expansion in the number of medical school places, coupled with a continuing rise in the number of overseas doctors working at that level in the UK.
Following a survey of senior house officers (SHOs), the BMA warns of a “very real danger” that large numbers of doctors will leave medicine either to work abroad or pursue other careers.
“These doctors are very concerned about the lack of available training posts and the constant stress they are placed under as they are forced to apply for scarce training posts each year,” it says.
When questioned last month, more than a third of respondents said they had not been offered a post to start this summer, while 87 per cent expressed concern about the availability of training posts within medicine.
More than half (58 per cent) said they would consider moving abroad to continue training if they could not find a suitable post in Britain, with a further 32 per cent admitting a shortage of work could cause them to leave the profession altogether.
Conservative health spokesman Andrew Lansley said the government should change the rules on overseas students looking for training posts in Britain to end this “crazy” situation.
“This is at a time when the financial pressures in hospitals seem to be reducing number of training posts when we should be expanding them,” he said.
“The government should change the rules so that overseas doctors can take necessary tests and apply from abroad and should agree contracts with NHS and independent hospitals to provide increased training places.”
