Junior Doctors Unemployment in August

[PurpleFairyLights]

Name changed but long term poster. Have a child that is in this situation with 100k of student debt.

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2025-05-07/bma-we-could-potentially-see-thousands-of-unemployed-doctors

Unbelievable this was allowed. Most countries protect their medical graduates.

A lot of doctors would be fine with not being consultants. But senior, none consultant roles need to be properly developed and trained. Currently, the majority of associate roles and similar are casual, filled locally and very dependent on luck that there is space for you and your area of interest. At the moment, the only option for those not being consultants is being stuck in training at the same level for year on year, which is what’s partly causing bottle necks lower down the chain.

Yes obviously not at the moment, but it would have been a better idea for retention and filling posts than recruiting lots of overseas medics.

Sometimes you wonder why those in power make the decisions they do, because if us ordinary people can see the pitfalls why can’t they

This is an extremely important and relevant point

Isn't it better to fill the roles with doctors who plan to have a career in the NHS even if they weren't born here. Surely it's very wasteful to invest in training young people who plan to use their skills abroad.

Woah. I have never mentioned about people not being born in the UK. So please don’t miss quote me. It’s purely about where people get their degree from. Hence why I have clearly said ‘British trained’ throughout, not ‘British’.

And I’m not sure where you have concluded from my post I’m advocating for the training of people who don’t want to stay in the UK? Most graduates I meet are desperate to train here.

Yes. It is. Employ UK trained staff first and any jobs left over to anyone else. It’s v simple. But no one seems to want to do it at the moment. Easy win for labour. They could also tell doctors what their pay rise will be so they don’t strike - they were supposed to tell them start of April but won’t. Why not offer less % but write off some student loan every year, so after 5 years it’s gone. I think that would be pretty popular ! Repaying £250,000 on a £80,000 loan is obscene.

Everyone has a student loan now, and everyone is paying the same ridiculous interest on them. Doctors aren't a special case, we need vets,engineers, architects and everything else. If you cancelled student loans for doctors you would have to do it for all.

I would like to write to my MP. Does anyone have a framework letter I could use? I’m not a medic and want to state the facts correctly .

@oddandelsewhere then you need to pay doctors more. Their pay has been cut by 22%. £17 an hour to save your life.

lowest paid staff on a bank holiday - they get no enhancements. But will likely be holding several emergency bleeps.

Where did the BMA get their figures from then as that's not what they were saying in the media?. I remember repeated news articles with their spokesperson stating that the majority were planning on moving abroad because they could get more money working in Costa.

I assume this was a factor in government decision to employ more overseas workers.

I genuinely don't mind if a doctor treating me was born or trained overseas and it would make more sense to offer the roles to the best candidate regardless of where they were born or went to uni.

Surely giving training posts to people who plan to leave the UK in a few years will leave us with a lack of more senior specialists which would be far worse.

It was £15.33 last year. That huge pay rise they got made it now £17.56.

No because loads of people have student loans, doctors end up earning more than most and most come from a place of privilege-61% are privately educated.

I have some sympathy with the op but sorry writing off loans is a ludicrous and hugely unfair idea.

@oddandelsewhere Doctors pay less interest on student loans as many will pay them off quickly. No 40 years of paying for them.

If we don’t want loans, how to pay for universities? Take taxes from lower earners who did not go? Or maybe we bite the bullet and reduce the university sector and say 37% of young people should not go. We need to rethink what the sector looks like but the state should not be paying for over supply of graduates.

I’m not following. What do you mean planning on moving abroad because they could get more money in Costa. Do you mean the coffee chain? How does that relate to being abroad? I don’t remember seeing anything like that to be honest but I may have missed it.

As I mentioned previously, if the British public would rather have doctors trained abroad treating them then fine. I don’t think that’s the majority view, but if it means lower taxes then maybe that’s what they’d chose. But then why are we spending so much money training medical students with ever increasing numbers of medical schools if there isn’t jobs for them? It’s financially nonsensical.

The over seas staffing issue needs to stop and I’m staggered no government has highlighted this or done anything about it even this one however I don’t have much sympathy as regards student loans( many young people in all sectors are struggling to find work) or the lack of consultant roles. Teachers don’t all expect to be heads etc.

@NCJDBecause the university sector multiplies like topsy! It’s why we have over 100 universities offering law. It’s not about vacancies. It’s about university expansion! And them getting money and kudos for offering medical degrees. Does anyone honestly think offering it at Buckingham was a great idea?

@R3s3tnog sure where that 61% figure comes from. V many doctors now come from v normal backgrounds - WP is massive.

@TizerorFizz😂😂😂 how will they pay them off early ? They don’t earn enough. And loan increases every year because of interest. Most will never repay them.

The majority of UK medical graduates do not want to move abroad to work to work.. There are only a few countries they could realistically go to Australia or NZ and that is jto do jobs that are left over once Oz/NZ graduates have got jobs. Usually they would go for a year or two.

My DC was 100% state educated and worked their socks off to get to medical school from the local comprehensive.

Doctor pay. CT4 is 6 years post qualified. So after 10 years of training.

@PurpleFairyLights and mine. And most of her friends.

Recruitment of doctors from overseas (IMGs) increased significantly after the removal of the Resident Labour Market Test (in January 2021) while the Conservatives were in power. The reinstatement of the RLMT or a similar safeguard would somewhat help address the UK doctor unemployment issues.

https://www.fsp-law.com/return-of-the-resident-labour-market-test/

There should be a prioritisation of medics already in the UK, whether UK MGs or UK IMGs before recruiting those outside the UK.

Doctors are definitely middle earners or higher. Not at the start but many get through the bands. This is what MSE says and no, no one HAS to pay it back if they don’t earn enough. Maybe read MSE, it’s the best explanation.