Resident doctors fear for jobs

Seven in 10 resident doctors in Scotland are concerned they won’t have a job from this August, a BMA Scotland survey finds.

Resident (formerly junior) doctors who responded to the survey say they are worried about being able to pay their rent, were thinking of moving abroad, or considering leaving medicine altogether owing to the workforce situation.

The survey lays bare the emerging medical unemployment crisis, which is affecting all four UK countries – caused in part because of a shortage of specialty training places to allow resident doctors to progress in their careers, as The Doctor has previously reported.

Of the 70 per cent of respondents who said they were concerned about future employment, more than a quarter (27 per cent) had been unsuccessful in applying for specialty training, 11 per cent were applying for medical jobs abroad and 21 per cent were looking at an alternative career or a return to formal education (not in medicine).

Chris Smith, who chairs the BMA Scottish resident doctors committee, called for urgent action.

He said: ‘At a time when patients are already worried about access to healthcare, with ever-growing waiting lists and not enough GPs to deal with the demand, it beggars belief that a new cohort of medical graduates are already considering moving country, taking a career break or even exploring the possibility of a different career path, some before they even begin training. Quite simply, there are not enough training places or jobs to allow them to continue to practise medicine in Scotland. 

‘The response from doctors to this survey has only further highlighted the emerging medical unemployment crisis in Scotland, which is by extension a crisis for our NHS and patients. The prospect of growing medical unemployment is a sobering one and the BMA is calling for this to be tackled immediately. Competition and pressure was a theme that featured in the survey responses. We know this isn't because we have a surplus of doctors, it is because we don't have enough training places and jobs.’

Comments from doctors who took part in the survey underlined the problems, with one telling the BMA that they were unsure ‘if I will be able to pay my rent come August’ with another simply stating: ‘The future feels quite bleak just now.’

Others say they are considering applying for supermarket jobs or leaving medicine and retraining.

Dr Smith, who has himself felt the impact of the crisis because he is also struggling to get a training post, said the comments made difficult reading.

He said: ‘It feels wasteful and somewhat immoral to encourage people to persevere through an intensive and expensive degree, to take on debt only to find themselves unable to secure a training job that allows them to become one of the many senior doctors that Scotland is screaming out for.

‘It should be remembered that medicine is a globally competitive market; not only do we want to encourage people to make Scotland their home, but we need to retain those doctors into whose training the Scottish public have invested – doctors who have in turn become invested and embedded into Scottish society.

Dr Smith warned that the problem of training place shortages had been building for several years and that the BMA had warned the Scottish Government that it would reach crisis point if something was not done to deal with the disparity in medical graduates and the number of training posts available.

‘All this is symptomatic of lack of a proper and comprehensive workforce plan for Scotland. To ensure current and future workforce matches with the populations' health care needs, then as a matter of urgency, the Scottish Government must bring forward a workforce plan. Without it the sustainability of the NHS is in jeopardy.’

Dr Smith added that, while he was ‘grateful’ to have secured a local job in medicine, the role was only for one year and wasn’t the training post he was hoping for.

He said: ‘Before I know it, I will be back to the stress and worry of trying to secure a training post. I can't lie, I am genuinely considering if practising medicine, in Scotland, is something I still want to pursue. Not because I don't want to live here or feel my vocation to be a doctor, but because at this stage I need to think about whether I can continue to stall my career progression and life waiting for a permanent training job.

‘This survey has proved I am not alone in this, and our snapshot survey has shown how widespread concerns are. The Scottish Government has said it is committed to making Scotland a place of choice to work and train, but that goal can only be realised when there are the opportunities to work and access to quality training. For an emerging lost tribe of doctors, even that can seem out of reach at times.’