Newly qualified doctors 'facing a recurring cycle of debt'

The British Medical Association says it wants the Government to address the funding gap.

- Storm Newton reports

NEWLY qualified doctors are driving Ubers and working in bars to make ends meet as they face a "recurring cycle of debt", the British Medical Association (BMA) has said.

Students from poorer backgrounds are hit hardest, the union claims, as it calls on the Government to address the funding gap and make a career in medicine accessible to people from as many backgrounds as possible.

Students in their final undergraduate year, along with those in the later years of a postgraduate medical degree, get a reduced student loan alongside an NHS bursary. This leads to a £3,674 drop in funding on average, according to the BMA.

Sophie Mitchell, deputy co-chair (finance) of the BMA's medical students' committee, said: "A lot of people are using these loans in previous years to either pay their rent and to live off. Losing out on a significant portion of that is meaning that students are struggling.

"We've got people maxing out overdrafts, we've got people maxing

A lot of my friends were graduating, maxing out their overdrafts, and then they've had to get overdraft extensions

SOPHIE MITCHELL, BMA

out credit cards. We've got people going into very significant debt just to actually finish this degree."

The average medical student faces 12 months of this reduced funding.

However, some postgraduate students, along with those on six-year degree programmes, face up to three years, Ms Mitchell said. Some are them are also faced with relocation expenses ahead of starting their first job in the NHS.