Emigration the cure for one in three medical students

One in three UK medical students intends to emigrate to practise medicine and many will not come back, a large survey suggests.

- JANE KIRBY

The study of 10,486 people from the UK’s 44 medical schools found 32 per cent intended to leave for countries including Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.

Reasons given for leaving the UK included better pay offers abroad, work-life balance and improved conditions. Around 60 per cent of those surveyed were either not satisfied or not at all satisfied with the prospect of working in the NHS.

Dr Latifa Patel, the British Medical Association’s representative body chair, said of the study: “It is disheartening that medical students already recognise the extent to which our profession has been devalued through constant pay erosion and declining working conditions, and have made up their minds, as a result, that the NHS is not the right place for them to work.

“They are investing seven years of their lives, starting out with the intent to be a doctor in our NHS, only to have that enthusiasm and commitment crushed out of them...

“It is not too late to fix this, but the power to do so rests with the government. Retention must be prioritised, and plans must address pay restoration, career progression and working conditions.”

A quarter of the UK’s medical student population was included in the latest survey, which has been published in the journal BMJ Open. The study looked at the intentions of medical students after university graduation and/or on completing the two-year NHS foundation training programme.