Official figures reveal sharp fall in number of young medics opting to work towards becoming GP or specialist after first two years in NHS

Almost half of all junior doctors who have just completed their foundation programme have opted not to continue their training in the NHS, threatening a “disaster” that senior medics fear will worsen the service’s shortage of frontline clinicians.

This year only 52% of junior doctors who finished the two-year foundation training after medical school chose to stay in the NHS and work towards becoming a GP or specialist – the lowest proportion in the health service’s history and down from 71.3% as recently as 2011.

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The official figures reveal sharp rises in the number of junior doctors shunning the NHS and opting instead to work in academia, as a locum medic or simply taking a career break.

The extra pressure on NHS staff created by the growing demand for patient care, disenchantment among junior doctors, and an increasing trend towards gap years are all being blamed for the trend.

“To see such a large number of doctors leave the NHS in such early stages of their careers is incredibly worrying, and can only worsen the recruitment crisis we are already seeing in many parts of our NHS, such as A&E,” said Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee.

“The government must focus on ensuring we have the valued and motivated workforce needed to meet rising demand across the country, as to lose any more doctors in the early stages of their careers would be a disaster for the NHS”.

These are disturbing figures. All this is very worrying. Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

“These figures should serve as a serious wake up call to the government, and highlight the significant impact that increasing demand, recruitment issues, and falling resources are having on NHS staff.

“The unprecedented pressure combined with the anger and frustration around the government’s plan to impose a new contract, has left many junior doctors voting with their feet,” he added.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “These are disturbing figures. All this is very worrying. The loss of anything other than a tiny minority of these junior doctors will be a substantial loss to the NHS if these expensively-trained, excellent young medical graduates choose not to pursue a career in the NHS”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators at a Save the NHS rally in central London on 1 December. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

“The figures show that more people are less willing to commit themselves to further training to become a GP or consultant in the NHS. They tell us that more and more are reluctant to join the NHS or are hedging their bets”, Wessely added.

The figures are based on the career intentions in August of 7,168 young medics who completed two years of foundation training, after having obtained a medical degree. At this point in their careers each of them will already have costthe public purse £250,000 to train.

The latest data has come from the Foundation Programme, a joint operation between Health Education England and the health departments in the four countries, which helps get doctors into NHS training posts after their foundation years.

The figures also show that:

The percentage of these doctors going to work in higher education or as anatomy demonstrators has risen from 3% in 2011 to 5.5% this year.



The proportion of those classed as having taken up a “service appointment in [the] UK” – which includes those electing to work as locums rather than as salaried employees – has soared from 2.3% to 9.2% in the same period.



“These worrying figures are another sign of how demoralised junior doctors have become under the Tories”, said Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary. “The government’s handling of the contract negotiations with junior doctors has been a lesson in precisely how not to do it. The fact that so many are now turning their their backs on a career in the NHS is an appalling reflection on how unvalued the profession feels.”

There are fears that next year’s figures could be even worse as a result of the bitter dispute between junior doctors in England and Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary. They reflect the situation in August, a month before the row erupted over a new contract for those 45,000 junior doctors.

Surprisingly, the figures do not show a big rise in the number of junior doctors opting to go and work abroad, though many senior figures in the NHS and medical profession that the ongoing dispute – which is the subject of ongoing talks – fear this will happen.

The proportion of young medics seeking work as a doctor outside the UK has risen from 3.7% to 4.3% between 2011 and 2015, while the percentage who have taken up a non-specialist training job overseas has fallen, from 7.4% to 6.1%.

The Department of Health refused to respond directly to the figures. However, a spokesman said: “NHS staff are our greatest asset and our positive contract offer to junior doctors offers a pay increase for the vast majority of the workforce and reduces the maximum number of hours a doctor can work in a week.”

• This article and a headline accompanying it were amended on 22 December 2015. An earlier version of the headline said “Almost half of junior doctors left NHS after foundation training” and the text said “Almost half of all junior doctors are opting not to continue their training in the NHS”. The figures relate to this year’s cohort of junior doctors who have just completed their foundation course and chosen not to continue their training in the NHS.