BMA urges Government to expand specialty training posts for NHS medics
The British Medical Association claims 4.7 applications were made for every post last year, up from a ratio of 1.9 in 2019.
Medics have urged the Government to expand the number of specialty training posts on offer in the NHS after warning about 20,000 doctors could miss out on places this year.
The British Medical Association’s resident doctors’ committee said it is a “scandal” that career progression is being hindered due to a lack of places.
Specialty training is the final phase for resident doctors who want to become consultants and allows them to gain experience in specific medical fields.
The British Medical Association (BMA) claims 4.7 applications were made for every post last year, up from a ratio of 1.9 in 2019, with the number set to rise again.
Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, co-chairs of the BMA’s resident doctors’ committee (RDC), said: “Any patient can see that the UK needs more doctors – England has one of the lowest numbers of doctors per person in Europe.
“It is a scandal that desperately needed doctors are finding their careers stymied, unable to progress because the training places are not there for them to do so.
“Come August this year we could potentially see thousands of unemployed doctors – shockingly that is while patients across the UK are waiting far too long for treatment.
“The failure to properly plan for the future of the NHS workforce is a political one, and it needs a political solution.”
The committee has called on UK governments to increase training posts, as well as urging for UK medical graduates to be prioritised for these posts.
The RDC also said the careers of international medical graduates (IMGs) working in the NHS should be protected.
Dr Ryan and Dr Nieuwoudt added: “The UK has spent considerable time and public money on the medical education of these doctors.
“That is before taking into account that some medical students leave university with over £100,000 of debt. This is not only a terrific waste of potential careers but a perversely inefficient way to plan a workforce.
“It is a simple fact that those who have experience in the NHS via their medical school and early years as doctors are more adapted to the system – yet in creating arbitrary competition ratios with applicants outside the NHS we are forcing these early career doctors to consider going to train in less familiar health systems themselves.
“In the long term the Government needs to face up to the fact that the country needs more consultants and GPs, and to achieve this we need to create more training places.
“But while these artificial shortages exist, it is vital we do everything possible to keep UK medical graduates in the system, and the Government cannot let their talents and the money already spent on them go to waste.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government is committed to building our own home-trained talent, improving opportunities for resident doctors, and training thousands more doctors, including specialists and consultants.
“We are tackling the issues that resident doctors are facing in partnership with the BMA.
“This summer, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to ensure the NHS has the right people with the right skills to deliver the care patients need.”
