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Half of resident doctors face joblessness as training bottlenecks deepen, BMA warns

The findings have prompted the doctors’ union to escalate its dispute with the Government to include urgent demands around training placements.

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More than half of resident doctors completing their foundational training say they have no job secured for next month, according to a new survey from the British Medical Association (BMA).

The findings have prompted the doctors’ union to escalate its dispute with the Government to include urgent demands around training placements.

The findings come at a critical point in the medical training pathway.

After finishing their first two years as FY1 and FY2 doctors, most residents aim to enter specialty training to become consultants or general practitioners.

However, competition for training posts has reached unprecedented levels, with over 30,000 applicants vying for just 10,000 specialty positions this year.

With August rapidly approaching – the month when new placements begin – 52% of FY2 doctors responding to the BMA survey reported having no substantive employment lined up.

Overall, one in three resident doctors said they had no role secured.

While the Government recently pledged to create 1,000 new specialty training posts over the next three years as part of its 10-year NHS workforce plan, the BMA said this commitment is far from adequate.

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As a result, the union has formally expanded its ongoing industrial dispute with the Government to include not just pay, but training capacity, on behalf of newly-qualified FY1s who will be most affected in the years to come.

BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan said: “Throughout this dispute, ballot and industrial action, one thing we have heard from our colleagues is the genuine fear and real worry about being able to secure a job in the future.

“It’s absurd that in a country where the Government says bringing down NHS waiting lists is one of its top priorities, not only is it not prepared to restore doctors’ pay, but it also won’t provide jobs for doctors ready, willing and capable to progress in their careers.

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“With more than six million patients on waiting lists in England, it’s maddening that a third of resident doctors say they cannot get a job. Across the NHS, this means potentially thousands of UK doctors are left in employment limbo when patients desperately need their care.”

They concluded: “Commitments from the Government to address this don’t go far enough or are too vague to convince us that they understand the gravity of the situation, so we’re making clear that, alongside pay, we are entering a dispute and demanding action so that no UK-trained, capable, doctor is left underemployed in the NHS.”

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