Half of doctors finishing foundation training will have no job next month, BMA warns

The BMA has raised concerns around the ‘looming’ unemployment crisis as half of doctors finishing foundation training say they have no job secured for next month. 

According to the results of a survey by the union, 52% of doctors said they have no ‘substantive employment or regular locum work’ secured for August, when they finish their foundation training and are due to enter specialty training. 

In the survey of more than 4,000 resident doctors, more than a third (34%) of those in their first foundation year also responded they did not have a job secured for next month. Overall, the survey found a third of all resident doctor respondents had no role secured for next month. 

This year, more than 30,000 doctors applied for just 10,000 specialty training places, according to the BMA. 

The union told Pulse it did not gather specific survey data on how many respondents were seeking GP posts. 

But in 2024 there were 3.67 applicants for every general practice post – 15,036 applications for 4,096 posts, according to NHS England figures.

It comes as the Government promised to create 1,000 new specialty training posts as part of its 10-year NHS plan published earlier this month. 

The plan said the posts would ‘focus on specialties where there is greatest need’ and pledged to prioritise UK medical graduates and ‘doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period’ for specialty training. 

However, the BMA said in light of its findings this commitment ‘falls well short of what is needed’ and that ‘the situation is currently at crisis point’.

Industrial action by resident doctors, including GP registrars, started on Friday last week and will continue until tomorrow (30 July) in an effort to restore pay to pre-2008 levels.  

Publishing the survey results today, the BMA announced it is launching an ‘additional linked dispute’ with the Government, seeking to make a deal that ‘would solve the looming unemployment crisis’. 

BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan said the survey results reflect the ‘genuine fear and real worry about being able to secure a job in the future’.

In a joint statement, the co-chairs said: ‘It’s absurd that in a country where the Government says bringing down NHS waiting lists is one of its top priorities, not only is it not prepared to restore doctors’ pay, but it also won’t provide jobs for doctors ready, willing and capable to progress in their careers.

‘With more than six million patients on waiting lists in England, it’s maddening that a third of resident doctors say they cannot get a job.

‘Across the NHS, this means potentially thousands of UK doctors are left in employment limbo when patients desperately need their care.

‘Commitments from the Government to address this don’t go far enough or are too vague to convince us that they understand the gravity of the situation, so we’re making clear that, alongside pay, we are entering a dispute and demanding action so that no UK-trained, capable, doctor is left underemployed in the NHS.’ 

Pulse has contacted the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.

Pulse has previously reported on specialty training post shortages as part of a wider investigation into the GP recruitment and unemployment crisis.