Junior Doctor Jobs: Your experiences and views

Hosptial Doctors performing surgery

Junior doctors face tougher competition than ever when applying for training posts.

The NHS has warned that there may be three applicantions per post. Many applicants will be doctors who qualified outside the EU.

Sian Thomas, from NHS Employers, said that competition is a good thing and ensures that patients get the best doctors.

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Here are a selection of your comments and experiences:

Last year I was forced to move to Kent from Scotland in order to get a training position in emergency medicine. This has resulted in the break-up of my relationship and has forced me to sell my house and leave family and friends.
Fraser Magee, Tunbridge Wells, England

It's a fair decision to allow non EU qualified doctors to train in the UK. My partner was 'recruited' in the late 90s from South Africa with promises of training. It would be a disgrace to turn around to these people and say "sorry you're not one of us" when they have set up home and paid UK taxes. Doctors should acknowledge that they are not immune to the forces of globalisation.
Neil, London

I am a junior doctor who went through the ridiculous recruiting process last year and was given a two year post. Five days before Christmas the junior doctors in my area, including myself, were told that our jobs have been scrapped and we have to apply again. Many of us have decided enough is enough and are moving abroad to countries such as Australia and New Zealand. The NHS and the Government treat their own doctors with complete disdain here and we won't be hanging around to endure it.
Chris, Scotland

My partner (also a doctor) and I were living and working at a hospital in West Sussex. I was not one of the lucky ones to be allocated a job in August. She was given a placement in central London. We moved together to London and I take what Locum work I can. I shall of course apply for a training job in this round but I think my chances are greatly reduced by the fact I have not been in full time employment since the end of my last contract in August.
Dr. David Secchi, London

When I was a Consultant I would have been horrified if only three people had applied to train with me and my colleagues. We did not discriminate by race or nationality. Doctors from overseas who have trained before coming to this country have held the NHS together for years and provided much of its excellence. Neither the government's attempt to generate un-necessary anxiety among young doctors, nor the exclusion of another generation of overseas doctors will do the people of this country any good.
N. H Bluett, Tewkesbury, England

I left a well paid job (in the NHS, ironically) to retrain as a doctor because it was my understanding that the NHS needed more doctors and it was a worthwhile thing to do. Now I am facing living hundreds of miles from my husband for years on end (he has a job that ties him to London), paying for two sets of accommodation and unable to think about starting a family as a result of all this. Ultimately, it is patient care that is going to suffer from demoralised doctors.
Rachel Jones, London, UK

I am an overseas doctor and all my previous interviews for the training posts I have attended have always gone to local graduates or UK citizens. The majority of the time overseas doctors are providing services and not just using the taxpayer's money for training. The services they provide are very good value for money for the NHS
A.S.Banerjee, Newcastle upon Tyne

I am a junior doctor who went through the MTAS process last year. What I experienced was the immense stress, fear and hopelessness of all the junior doctors who were involved in the MTAS process. I am sure it had an impact on patient care at times. The morale was so low. What I don't understand, is how we have ended up in this position. Why have so many doctors been trained over the past few years that they cannot be employed? How can the government justify wasting so much of the tax payers' money training these doctors? And what is indeed going to happen to those highly skilled and dedicated doctors, who will be left unemployed?
Minni Korhonen, Aberdeen

As a final year medical student, I am disgusted by the fact that I have cost the UK tax payer £250,000 and may end up being forced to leave medicine in two years time. I am not scared of competition - in fact I am all for it - but make it FAIR competition. It is time the BMA stood up for our rights.
Alexandra Obee, UK

I find it highly discouraging that the press publicises the lack of junior doctor jobs (presumably due to their high status in the NHS) and ignores the plight of hundreds of junior physiotherapists that are unable to get jobs. With 20,000 patients currently waiting to see a physio on the NHS and 50% of 2007's graduates without jobs, never mind hundreds from 2006 and 2005, surely they deserve some press coverage?
Sam Lyon, Aberdeen, UK

I am a junior doctor who applied through the terrible system last year, and will be applying again this year. I was three weeks away from being unemployed when I was offered a one year training job in July 2007. I strongly object to Sian Thomas' comments that this is good for patients. Is it good for patients to have junior doctors who spend six months of the year applying for jobs and attending interviews, and who are understandably distracted by impending unemployment? I think not.
Junior doctor from Cardiff, Wales

I applied through MTAS last year and am applying this year through the revised 'system'. Frankly, I'm concerned about my prospects this year after being shoe-horned into what I considered to be an inappropriate post last year and receiving little relevant training in the last six months. I am over qualified to repeat the year of training and under-qualified to submit an application for next year's training. I just hope I have the means to hold on until things settle down.
Dr W B Chellam, Birkenhead

Can I just ask what the huge fiasco about job competition of 3:1 is? As a lawyer, I regularly see statistics more akin to 50:1 or even higher. When I see a doctor, I want the best candidate available, not a UK graduate based purely on the fact that he/she graduated from the UK. There can be no justification for such discrimination and the government should be ashamed of itself for even mounting such a challenge. If a candidate has adequate English language skills they should be able to be a doctor in this country.
Lewis Blakey, London, England

I decided to emigrate to Australia to complete my specialist training in psychiatry after 11 years working in junior positions and receiving no support from senior colleagues, the royal college or BMA in obtaining an advanced training post. This has meant re-sitting my final exams and moving approximately two years backward in my training in order to become a consultant. Hearing the mess the NHS is in I will not be returning to the UK despite missing my home, family and place of birth.
Spencer Duke, Sydney, Australia

This is welcome news for me and other doctors who qualified outside the EU and came into UK through HSMP as it will now become a level playing field for all doctors, irrespective of their country of qualification. I believe the previous situation was a violation of all known labour laws and discriminated against Doctors that qualified outside the EU who have clearly contributed immensely to the NHS.
Dr Kilali B Ominu-Evbota, Northampton, United Kingdom

I am doctor training in psychiatry who began a training post only three months ago. Filling in applications has been my life for the past few months and already I have to apply again. I feel I am running a marathon at sprint pace.
Sridhar Shanmugham, Reading, London

What will happen to the medical care in the countries that these overseas doctors are coming from to work in the UK? Populations neglected by decision making gone mad.
RMPS, Glasgow

I am coming to the end of my five year medical degree course at Sheffield University and I am in the process of applying for a junior doctor position. I am appalled to find that after being encouraged to train as a doctor to meet a shortage of medical posts five years ago, I am now being faced with having no job at the end of it. I am massively in debt, if I do not get a junior doctor's place in August how am I going to afford to pay off my student loan of £25k, bank overdraft and loan?
Katie Benner, Bourne, Lincs

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