Trainee doctors have been denied leave despite experiencing stillbirth or having a child or partner in intensive care, a dossier of young medics’ “brutal” treatment by the NHS reveals.

Hospitals have refused to let trainees take time off for their weddings and told them to use holiday entitlement rather than compassionate leave to attend funerals of relatives.

One junior doctor’s medic husband was told by his trust that it would only grant him compassionate leave to spend time with his wife, who had just had a miscarriage, if she had died. Another had to work despite having been injured in a road traffic accident on her way in that led to her car being written off.

Others have been denied paternity leave because their hospital was too short-staffed, had to work when ill, and been told to produce marriage or death certificates in order to get leave.

These “horrific experiences” illustrate “the minute, vague and petty tortures a colossal machine like the NHS” inflicts on young medics, according to Dr Joanna Poole, who compiled the dossier.

Poole, an anaesthetic registrar, collated accounts from more than 400 fellow trainees from across the UK after she posted a blog online detailing the NHS’s lack of care for young medics.

“Why are we treating professionals who have cost thousands to train, dreamed of the career often since a child, work at the expense of their health and personal life, in such a disposable way?” she wrote.

Her dossier suggests a lack of support by the NHS for doctors in the early stages of their careers is fuelling an increase in the numbers dropping out of their specialist training or retiring early.

NHS leaders are attempting to improve working conditions for all staff while struggling to overcome problems caused by the health service in England having more than 100,000 vacant posts. That includes a shortage of 9,000 doctors.

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, the chair of the Doctors’ Association UK, said: “Our profession is at breaking point. These stories and our #NHSMeToo campaign highlight the brutal treatment that many doctors sadly face during their training to become consultants in the NHS.”

The medical royal colleges representing anaesthetists and pathologists have backed Poole’s campaign to persuade the NHS to be more sensitive and caring towards young medics. She is sending her findings to NHS England, which pledged to improve staff morale and wellbeing in its long-term plan.

In her blog, Poole recounted how, when working for hospitals previously during her rotations, she slept in her car at service stations during long drives home after finishing shifts. She also had to use annual leave to attend induction days when starting at a new trust and could not get time off to visit an aunt in intensive care.

NHS Providers, which represents trusts, acknowledged the growing strain on the service was taking a heavy toll on trainee medics.

“Working as a junior doctor should be a rewarding career, but there is no denying that staff shortages, rota gaps and growing demand are adding to the considerable pressures they face. This can take a physical and mental toll, leading to burnout, sleep loss or demoralisation,” said Chris Hopson, its chief executive.

Trusts have recognised the pressures on junior doctors and are “working incredibly hard and creatively to improve the working environment and support available for them”, he added.

Hopson continued: “Examples include the extension of flexible working, free on-site accommodation and counselling services, as well as smaller innovations which make a big difference, such as free meals following night shifts, discounted gym memberships and relaxation spaces.”

NHS national bodies in England are due to unveil a workforce implementation plan next month. However, it is unlikely to spell out much detail on specific initiatives to tackle the rising attrition affecting medical training, with that delayed until the autumn.

Health thinktanks last week urged the NHS in England to do much more to value, support and nurture staff or risk the shortage increasing from 100,000 to 250,000 by 2030.

Dido Harding, the chair of NHS Improvement, urged trusts to do more to support trainee medics. “Junior doctors are the lifeblood of our health service and deserve to be supported by their employers with compassion and care,” she said.

“Many parts of the NHS do this well, but feedback from across the service is that we can and should do better if we are to make the NHS a great place to work, which is exactly what our NHS people plan will seek to do.”

Case studies

A former trainee doctor, female

After my grandfather died, they asked me to bring in a death certificate to prove what had happened, as apparently we are capable of lying about something like this to get out of a night shift. I then had the funeral the next week, but wasn’t allowed any time off – I was rostered on the weekend. I am still astounded and shocked to this day about what was asked of me, and why I had to provide proof, and how they went about speaking to me, with absolutely zero compassion. I was only a naive foundation year one doctor. At the end of foundation year two, I decided I had had enough and didn’t apply to go on into specialist training.

A former obstetrics and gynaecology trainee, female

I’ve actually left medicine now. But when I was a young doctor rotating through obstetrics and gynaecology, I was 20 weeks pregnant and had appendicitis, and my consultant made me do my on-call shift as they couldn’t find cover. I then finished the shift and went to another hospital to have my appendix out. I then got grief for taking sick leave. Later, when I was pregnant again, I had pleurisy and a chest infection. But I wasn’t allowed to go home as they were short of staff. I took myself to hospital after work and was found to have left lower lobe pneumonia. It turned out I had cancer. I was told in my review that due to time off I wasn’t shown to be a team player.

A general medicine trainee, female