Commenting on reports that NHS Employers is looking at options for thousands of doctors who are at risk of not getting a training post through the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors Committee, says:
“It’s extremely worrying that NHS managers do not know how many posts are available for the thousands of junior doctors applying for them. It’s even more alarming that they are preparing for medical unemployment on such a large scale.
“The government can no longer deny the seriousness of this crisis. As a matter of urgency, the health secretary must guarantee that no doctor in training will be denied a career in the NHS as a result of poor workforce planning.
“If our most talented doctors are forced out of training, they will head overseas or leave medicine entirely. They will lose out on their dreams of becoming consultants and GPs in the NHS. Their patients will lose out on the right to be treated by the best doctors. And taxpayers will get no return on the millions of pounds spent on medical training. The government’s failure to plan the NHS workforce created this mess.”
