Ministers urged to provide more graduate training slots for UK medical students
A doctor-turned-MP has called on the Government to provide more guaranteed graduate training slots for UK medical students, ahead of the doctors' union voting on a motion which will urge Whitehall to take urgent action.
Dr Peter Prinsley, a retired ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist who was elected for Labour last year, said thousands of British medicine graduates were missing out on doing further training every year because of a lack of places combined with the pressures from international medical graduates in the NHS.
The British Medical Association has said about 20,000 applicants will miss out this year, if the number of available posts are the same. It added that according to the latest figures, there were 4.7 applications per post.
The MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket said it had led to graduates moving abroad to do further study who sometimes do not return. He added there should be reserved spaces for UK graduates to be able to specialise and do further study.
Dr Prinsley told the PA news agency: 'The problem is that we've got a distorted competition ratio for the professional training slots.
'It should be a reasonable expectation that if you graduate from the UK medical school, you should have a reasonable chance of getting into higher professional training.
'There should be some competition. It shouldn't just be that you automatically progress with no effort, there should be a bit of competition, but the competition ratios have been hugely distorted by the requirement of the hospitals to provide junior doctors to staff their rotas.'
It comes as Wes Streeting said UK medical graduates will be given priority for NHS jobs under the upcoming 10-year health plan.
The Health Secretary told medical website doctors.net.uk on Thursday: 'I want to make sure that if you go through your medical training here in the UK, that you're able to work in the UK.'
Mr Streeting added it was 'completely bonkers' to invest in training doctors but not ensure they can stay in the UK to work.
The latest figures from the BMA showed there were 33,108 medical graduates applying for around 13,000 posts. This includes 12,305 UK graduates and 20,803 from overseas.
The number of international medical graduates has doubled in two years, the figures show, while the UK ones have only risen by a third.
The sharp rise in the number of international medical graduates has been down to the increased demand for doctors in the NHS to fill hospital vacancies.
In 2023 more than two-thirds of new doctors (68%) joining the NHS were non-UK graduates, up from 47% in 2017.
In a statement, the Department for Health and Social Care said the Government should not be 'over-reliant' on overseas recruitment.
Doctors can go on to do further training after two foundation years in the NHS.
If they apply and miss out on further study, they then move on to so-called foundation three status, where they can work as locums and apply for jobs within individual trusts. Some, however, opt to move abroad to work or study.
The number doing another foundation year has risen in recent years. In its latest workforce report, the General Medical Council said the number of doctors not going into speciality training had grown and was a 'sizeable' part of the workforce.
Dr Prinsley said he believes priority should be given to UK graduates and physician associates – who have less training – could be used to fill some of the roles taken up by overseas recruits.
He said: 'The change that we need is not very difficult. We just need to make a situation in which we prioritise the UK training slots for the UK medical graduates. If we've got any slots we can't recruit to, then, of course, we extend it.'
He added: 'The problem has two solutions. We need less international medical graduates being recruited by the hospitals. We need to find an alternative way of staffing the rotas to run the hospitals.
'There's a sort of golden mean, which would allow us to sort out the ratios of international medical graduates to British graduates, and also provide a meaningful role for these graduates as physician associates.'
The British Medical Association will discuss the issue at its annual conference in Liverpool on Monday. In a motion put forward by members in the East Midlands, it asks the Government to 'significantly increase the number of training posts available for resident doctors'.
It echoes a similar call by the Royal College of Physicians, who wrote in February 'UK graduates must be supported and enabled to enter postgraduate training schemes to continue their training in the NHS'.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We are committed to building home-grown talent and ensuring UK medical graduates can find work in Britain – our 10 year health plan will tackle bottlenecks in the system.
'Internationally-trained staff remain an important part of the workforce but we should not be over reliant on overseas recruitment.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Could Ketamine on the NHS help treat severe depression?
Ketamine is increasingly known as a party drug which is linked to serious health problems, even fatalities. But there is growing interest in Scotland in its potential to treat severe depression. One NHS Lothian psychiatrist hopes to set up a clinic by the end of the year offering the Category B drug as an alternative to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a treatment that involves sending an electric current through the brain. Prof Andrew McIntosh thinks it could offer another alternative to patients with the most hard-to-treat depression. The move comes after a private clinic in Lanarkshire began offering ketamine assisted therapy to clients with treatment-resistant depression last summer. The Eulas clinic in Hamilton opened under licence from Healthcare Improvement Scotland in September and charges £6,000 for a programme of four intravenous ketamine infusions and a course of psychotherapy. Ketamine is a medical anaesthetic and while it is not licensed for the routine treatment for depression, it can be used 'off-label' by doctors and psychiatrists. Alex, who recently moved to Scotland from the United States, is one of 12 people being treated at the clinic. She has experienced periods of depression and anxiety and says she turned to ketamine assisted therapy when traditional treatments didn't help. "I was crying all day long while I was working, and was very resistant to doing anything new," the 40-year-old said. Ketamine, which is illegal on the streets, has nevertheless been used as a recreational drug for years because of its detached, dream-like effects. "I definitely had a psychedelic experience," Alex said. "You would see images, kind of feel like you're floating sometimes. "If you're reclined, you might feel like you're floating into different spaces for example. Or like you're going down a waterslide." Alex believes the infusions made her more receptive to psychotherapy. "I think it makes it more palatable almost," she says. "You may see an image and you'll remember this image and then you'll talk to your therapist and they'll say: 'That's interesting, why do you think you saw that? What does that represent to you?" Alex had already tried ketamine therapy in the United States before being treated in Scotland and thinks it should be more widely available here. "Before, I was really depressed," she said "Now I feel like I'm doing pretty well. I am active, I am trying new things, traveling again, kind of getting back to the person I felt like I used to be." Sean Gillen, the director of the Eulas clinic, says patients must have a diagnosed condition and be assessed by a psychiatrist to qualify for treatment. He admits the cost of ketamine assisted therapy may be out of reach for many and hopes it will soon be available on the NHS. "You're dealing with psychiatrists, anaesthetists, psychotherapists – these are real professional people and they need to be paid," he said. "Most people don't have that kind of money and that's why we'd like to enter a partnership with the NHS." Ketamine is licensed as an anaesthetic but has hit the headlines for its recreational use. It can cause serious and sometimes permanent damage to the bladder, alongside a range of other complications if misused. It was linked to the death of RuPaul's Drag Race UK star The Vivienne earlier this year. And a coroner found Friends actor Matthew Perry died of the 'acute effects of ketamine' in 2023. Esketamine, a form of ketamine taken as a nasal spray, has been approved for the treatment for moderate to severe treatment-resistant depression in Scotland but intravenous ketamine has not, though it can be prescribed 'off-label'. The Royal College of Psychiatrists has previously urged caution over the use of ketamine therapy but it is due to publish a new report on psychedelics later this year, with updated information on ketamine. Andrew McIntosh, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh and an NHS psychiatrist, hopes to set up a ketamine clinic at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital by the end of the year. It would be offered to patients with the most hard-to-treat depression, as an alternative to ECT. He said: "Even after taking multiple antidepressants and multiple different treatments, there's a small number of people who don't respond very well to any of those treatments, so ketamine gives them additional hope and it's been shown to be effective. "And it's an extra thing we could be doing to help our patients that is not currently available widely in Scotland." Prof McIntosh said it is not clear exactly how ketamine works to treat depression. He said: "Some people think it's because the brain becomes more plastic, more able to adapt. "Some people think it's because it alters the connections between different parts of the brain. "I think it's fair to say we don't fully understand how all the pieces of the jigsaw fit together and why it's effective, although we know it's very effective." He said the ketamine used to treat depression is very different to what people might take illegally. "The ketamine that's given in clinical services is going to be a very pure form of the drug," he said. "It's going to be given under very controlled circumstances, and we are going to know that it's only the drug that's in the preparation, it's not the other things that are sometimes taken by people who use it recreationally. "The dose of the drug that is given for depression is also far, far lower than people use recreationally, so we think the risks of that are much, much lower than they are when it's taken in the community." NHS Lothian said it was considering the use of intravenous ketamine as an alternative to ECT, but no decision had been made. Tracey Gillies, executive medical director at NHS Lothian, said recent international studies suggested that the use of IV ketamine may be a cost-effective alternative to ECT. She said the introduction of any new service had to be carefully considered, with patient safety and cost factors among those to be managed. Dr Anna Ross, a lecturer in health and social policy at the University of Edinburgh and co-founder of Scottish Psychedelic Research Group, has carried out research with the Eulas clinic. She is interested in the potential for ketamine to treat depression and addiction problems but believes psilocybin, a Category A drug found in so-called magic mushrooms, could be more effective. She said: "I've been involved in drugs policy and drugs using communities now for about 20 years, and ketamine in and of itself has not been a substance I've known to be a positive substance as such, but it's really come to the fore in the UK because we don't have access to psilocybin. "So therefore clinics like the Eulas clinic and NHS facilities are starting to look at ketamine because it already has a scheduling and it can already be used for psychedelic therapy." A Scottish government spokesman said: "Decisions on whether to prescribe a medicine are a matter for the prescribing clinician based on individual patient need and in consultation with the patient, informed by advice and guidance about the medicine."
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mounjaro weight loss jab: All you need to know
GPs in England will be able to prescribe weight loss jabs for the first time on the NHS on Monday, as the health service begins its mass rollout. Some 220,000 people with the 'greatest need' are expected to receive Mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide and made by Lilly, through the NHS over the next three years. Here the PA news agency takes a look at the drug and the rollout. – How does tirzepatide work? Tirzepatide, or Mounjaro, is an antidiabetic drug which lowers blood sugar levels and slows down how quickly food is digested. It makes you feel fuller for longer and therefore less hungry. If the jab is recommended by a healthcare professional, those using it will need to eat a balanced, reduced-calorie diet and to exercise regularly while taking it, according to the NHS website. – Who might be eligible for the drug? In the first year of the programme, the drug will be offered to people with a body mass index (BMI) score of more than 40 who have at least four other health problems linked to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes; high blood pressure; heart disease; and obstructive sleep apnoea. It was previously only accessible to patients through a special weight loss service, to severely obese people who also suffer from a range of other health problems. Estimates suggest around 1.5 million people in the UK are already taking weight loss drugs, which may have been prescribed through specialist weight loss services or via private prescription. – How would it be administered? The drug is usually delivered through a self-administered weekly injection which a doctor or nurse will show patients how to use, the NHS website says. – Who cannot take tirzepatide? Mounjaro is not recommended for those who are pregnant or planning to get pregnant, breastfeeding or have certain health conditions, according to the NHS. For those taking the contraceptive pill and using tirzepatide, the NHS recommends using an additional method of contraception, such as a condom, for the first four weeks of treatment and for four weeks after each dose increase as the contraceptive pill may not be absorbed by the body during this time. – What are the potential side effects? Potential side effects of tirzepatide include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ministers urged to provide more graduate training slots for UK medical students
A doctor-turned-MP has called on the Government to provide more guaranteed graduate training slots for UK medical students, ahead of the doctors' union voting on a motion which will urge Whitehall to take urgent action. Dr Peter Prinsley, a retired ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist who was elected for Labour last year, said thousands of British medicine graduates were missing out on doing further training every year because of a lack of places combined with the pressures from international medical graduates in the NHS. The British Medical Association has said about 20,000 applicants will miss out this year, if the number of available posts are the same. It added that according to the latest figures, there were 4.7 applications per post. The MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket said it had led to graduates moving abroad to do further study who sometimes do not return. He added there should be reserved spaces for UK graduates to be able to specialise and do further study. Dr Prinsley told the PA news agency: 'The problem is that we've got a distorted competition ratio for the professional training slots. 'It should be a reasonable expectation that if you graduate from the UK medical school, you should have a reasonable chance of getting into higher professional training. 'There should be some competition. It shouldn't just be that you automatically progress with no effort, there should be a bit of competition, but the competition ratios have been hugely distorted by the requirement of the hospitals to provide junior doctors to staff their rotas.' It comes as Wes Streeting said UK medical graduates will be given priority for NHS jobs under the upcoming 10-year health plan. The Health Secretary told medical website on Thursday: 'I want to make sure that if you go through your medical training here in the UK, that you're able to work in the UK.' Mr Streeting added it was 'completely bonkers' to invest in training doctors but not ensure they can stay in the UK to work. The latest figures from the BMA showed there were 33,108 medical graduates applying for around 13,000 posts. This includes 12,305 UK graduates and 20,803 from overseas. The number of international medical graduates has doubled in two years, the figures show, while the UK ones have only risen by a third. The sharp rise in the number of international medical graduates has been down to the increased demand for doctors in the NHS to fill hospital vacancies. In 2023 more than two-thirds of new doctors (68%) joining the NHS were non-UK graduates, up from 47% in 2017. In a statement, the Department for Health and Social Care said the Government should not be 'over-reliant' on overseas recruitment. Doctors can go on to do further training after two foundation years in the NHS. If they apply and miss out on further study, they then move on to so-called foundation three status, where they can work as locums and apply for jobs within individual trusts. Some, however, opt to move abroad to work or study. The number doing another foundation year has risen in recent years. In its latest workforce report, the General Medical Council said the number of doctors not going into speciality training had grown and was a 'sizeable' part of the workforce. Dr Prinsley said he believes priority should be given to UK graduates and physician associates – who have less training – could be used to fill some of the roles taken up by overseas recruits. He said: 'The change that we need is not very difficult. We just need to make a situation in which we prioritise the UK training slots for the UK medical graduates. If we've got any slots we can't recruit to, then, of course, we extend it.' He added: 'The problem has two solutions. We need less international medical graduates being recruited by the hospitals. We need to find an alternative way of staffing the rotas to run the hospitals. 'There's a sort of golden mean, which would allow us to sort out the ratios of international medical graduates to British graduates, and also provide a meaningful role for these graduates as physician associates.' The British Medical Association will discuss the issue at its annual conference in Liverpool on Monday. In a motion put forward by members in the East Midlands, it asks the Government to 'significantly increase the number of training posts available for resident doctors'. It echoes a similar call by the Royal College of Physicians, who wrote in February 'UK graduates must be supported and enabled to enter postgraduate training schemes to continue their training in the NHS'. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We are committed to building home-grown talent and ensuring UK medical graduates can find work in Britain – our 10 year health plan will tackle bottlenecks in the system. 'Internationally-trained staff remain an important part of the workforce but we should not be over reliant on overseas recruitment.'
