Help plea for junior doctor costs

The BMA said debt levels could make medicine an unattractive career path

Doctors' leaders have criticised the NHS for not providing travel and relocation expenses to new trainees.

Most junior doctors get expenses but those in the first two years of their NHS careers will not.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said hundreds of Scotland's most junior doctors had been changing jobs as part of their two-year training programme.

The BMA said those juniors now faced high expense in order to complete their training.

During the two-year foundation training programme, many juniors are employed on short-term contracts of four to six months at a time.

All of Scotland's junior doctors deserve a fair deal Dr Alan Robertson BMA Scotland

The BMA said these jobs could have a wide geographical spread across Scotland and many doctors therefore needed to relocate themselves and their families, or face high travel costs at their own expense.

But because they have been employed on short-term contracts, for each rotation of their training, these doctors are not entitled to reclaim the costs of these expenses for the two-year period.

The BMA said this significant debt level could make medicine an increasingly unattractive career path, especially for those from lower socio-economic groups.

Junior doctors are also no longer entitled to free hospital accommodation in their first year after leaving medical school.

Dr Alan Robertson, chair of the BMA's Scottish junior doctors committee, said: "All of Scotland's junior doctors deserve a fair deal and I call on NHS employers to reinstate free hospital accommodation for FHO1 doctors and extend travel and relocation expenses to cover all junior doctors.

"If they fail to do so, the Scottish Government must compensate doctors for these additional costs."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "Following discussions over the last few months agreement was reached between NHS Scotland employers and the BMA's Scottish Junior Doctors Committee on arrangements for travel and relocation expenses.

"The terms of this agreement, to which NHS Scotland employers and the BMA's SJDC both signed up, were that it would apply only to Specialty Trainees.

"The agreement is an interim agreement with effect from August 2007 until 31 July 2009. All parties have agreed that future arrangements beyond July 2009 could be the subject of further discussion from May 2009. It is therefore open to the BMA to raise this issue as part of any discussions that take place at that time."