Why are newly trained doctors not getting jobs and leaving the UK when we’re so short of doctors?

Errrmm yes but what do newly qualified Drs become eventually? That’s why you need to do workforce planning, so that you have what you need for the future.

The shortgage isn’t for junior / trainee doctors. It’s for specialists.

So tell us how you would produce specialists without first producing junior doctors.

The shortgage isn’t for junior / trainee doctors. It’s for specialists.

Because NHSEngland and Health Education England aren't talking to each other- yes it's nuts.

Pretty impressive, given that Health Education England ceased to exist last year and its role was taken on by NHS England.

Trusts don't actually need this increased number of foundation doctors. The shortage is actually for specialised doctors and GPs.

You can't produce specialists and GPs without first producing foundation doctors. Unless you import them from other countries.

HEE/NHSE have repeatedly said core & specialist training would be updated to accommodate increasing numbers of junior doctors, but nothing meaningful has happened. With the intended massive expansion of medical graduates over the coming 12 years, there will need to be a major redesign of postgraduate training but I don't think anyone is confident NHSE has the ability or the resources to do this. The long-term workforce plan doesn't propose large increases in specialist posts as it wants more doctors to cover general service delivery, presumably so those on specialist training programmes can actually do some specialist training, which is difficult at present. But changing the intended postgraduate training & career pathway needs a substantial change to the employment framework, otherwise the increased numbers of non-specialists will have very limited career advancement prospects and will continue to choose to emigrate. At present, I can't see anyone being honest with current & prospective medical students about what kind of job they can expect.

As always it comes down to;
A: money
B: poor workforce planning

The newly qualified Drs are our future Consultants.

ahaclinics.com.au/2023/02/22/british-doctors-should-i-move-to-australia/#:~:text=What%20are%20your%20financial%20needs,less%20mental%20stress%20and%20fatigue.

Because NHSEngland and Health Education England aren't talking to each other- yes it's nuts.

NHSE have told all Trusts they are broke and to spend millions less and reduce numbers of employees/the pay bill.

HEE have trained up 100s more Foundation Doctors and now have nowhere to place them all.

Trusts don't actually need this increased number of foundation doctors. The shortage is actually for specialised doctors and GPs. With the financial constraints in place they aren't hiring these young doctors so they are all leaving. If they did hire them then obviously in a few years we might have some more specialised doctors.
That said HEE haven't increased training number places in these shortage specialties either yet.
You couldn't make it up.

That combined with relatively poor pay, the rising numbers of other healthcare professionals (eg physician associate) has left the young doctors feeling undervalued after their long and expensive education.

This will inevitably start another Physician Associate-bashing thread, we seem to have at least one a week. Stirring up an already very difficult, problematic debate whilst managing to denigrate an entire profession, causing well-established PA’s to fear for their job security and undermining public confidence in the role. Yes there are issues, but the social media toxicity is completely counterproductive.

The junior doctor training programme is far from perfect and there are and have been many other issues at play, from medical student places all the way up to availability of training rotations.