Late to reply to this, though the discussion continues.
All sorts of doctors are taking temporary jobs:
- my newly retired GP cousin and his wife do cover work for local practices
- A recent MN thread was about a doctor who had been working for about seven years in a psychiatric hospital in a locum role - ie a role that was needed by never formally established, but who was replaced overnight by a more expensive PA. Budget for them, no budget for a doctor even though they would cheaper and would have vital wider medical knowledge.
- Doctors completing F2, who need to spend the next year(s) preparing for increasingly competitive exams for further training.
And so on.
I get the "get on yer bike" philosophy but it does not work for everyone. Not for my cousin, nor for the poster who had family commitments and a husband in a non mobile career. Even for "F3s" it is tough. They have probably have had to move for F1/F2, possibly somewhere they did not choose, and indeed may well have to move between F1 and F2. They are mid 20s and some will be wanting to put down roots.
It was a bit of a shock when DDs F1 cohort realised that they might end up unemployed. DD could move again for a "F3" position and recognises that she will be applying countrywide for specialist training. At the moment it does not bother her that she may not be able to settle down until her early 30s but others won't feel the same. A number of her peers went to the local University and have no desire to leave the area.
It is worth knowing about the problems in advance even if they are solved. DD first plans to look for a year's work in the field she wants to specialise in so she can study for the entry exams. She recognises that with the advent of PAs, such a job is more likely to be in Australia, but hey! And if she can't get a job/training back in the UK she presumably stays there. Luckily she also has her intercalation to fall back on. She is confident that she can approach firms in the medical engineering field armed with her engineering and medical degrees, and indeed has already been told by a major research lab to give them a call if she is looking to do a PhD.
(Hence my intercalation point many pages earlier. It provides a second string to the bow in an uncertain world.)
DD has also, slightly oddly, bought a house. She lives in an area where property prices are low and it will probably be a decade before she knows where her future will lie. If she moves, she rents it out, but at least she has a base and a chance to pay off a mortgage even if at the end the capital she builds up is barely enough for a deposit in the South East.
The NHS is a monopsonistic employer, especially for junior doctors. Real thought needs to be given to its aims in relation to training, retaining and motivating staff.
We have been round the block with the "all medical schools are equal" several times over the past few years. Medical schools are different. Oxbridge is a three year academic course followed by clinical. It attracts students wanting some rigorous academics and who like writing essays. Ditto UCL and Imperial have a lot of research going on, and so will attract students who have half an eye on academic medicine. DD found there was a noticeable difference in culture between Imperial and Bristol. (In fairness Bristol have a lot of group working which served her well during her intercalation.) There are super ambitious students elsewhere, but it is surely no surprise that academic, research orientated individuals are strongly represented when you comes to look at top specialists. Then throw in that students will do better where there is a fit between them and the prevailing culture, and it is probably worth applicants thinking about which culture might suit them best.