Fears resident doctors in Wales will be left unemployed from August
Many now will be forced to take up "costly and unsustainable" locum work and others are applying for jobs abroad, a recent survey by the British Medical Association (BMA) has found.
Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu, chair of the BMA's Welsh Resident Doctor Committee said: 'At a time when Wales needs more doctors, there are limited opportunities for resident doctors to develop their careers in the country where they trained.
'Earlier this year, we wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care warning him of the potential impact of not expanding training places, including medical unemployment.
'Doctors are now forced to seek ad hoc locum work, leave Wales, or leave the profession altogether. Poor workforce planning and chronic underfunding of the NHS has led to a national shortage of doctors in Wales.
'This is unsafe for patients, and we need to see urgent intervention from the Welsh Government, including legislation to provide safer staffing levels and an expansion in specialty training places.
'By alleviating bottlenecks in the training pipeline, we can enable doctors to progress their careers and provide the specialist care that patients desperately need'
A resident doctor, previously known as a junior doctor, is a qualified medical practitioner who is undergoing further training to specialise in a particular area of medicine, such as surgery, general practice, or a medical specialty.
They are fully qualified doctors who have graduated from medical school but are still in training, working under the supervision of more senior doctors.
The BMA's data, which looked at the employment of resident doctors who have now completed two or more years of their foundation training, also showed that 53% of doctors currently facing unemployment were unsuccessful in securing a specialty training post this year.
The specialty training which begins in August each year, enables doctors to develop their skills in a particular area of medicine after two or more years of general training following graduation so that they are able to progress their careers and provide specialist care to patients.
In total, 82% of respondents said they either currently have concerns around unemployment from August 2025 or have had concerns but have now secured employment.
BMA Cymru Wales says its findings paint a stark picture of a medical workforce under pressure, with 63% of those without training posts now planning to take up locum work, which the union describes as "costly, unsustainable, and becoming rarer with employers particularly in general practice unable to pay for locums due to underinvestment."
The survey also found that 46% of doctors facing unemployment are considering leaving medicine altogether and 30% are now also applying for jobs abroad.
Some doctors described applying for up to 30 posts without securing a single offer.
The results reflect concerns raised by BMA Cymru Wales, who at the start of the year learnt that the Welsh Government had not taken on board the recommendation by Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) to expand specialty training places, despite the growing number of medical students and foundation doctors in Wales, including those who have graduated from the new North Wales medical school.
The Welsh Government says it's currently investing £294m into health professional education and training in Wales.
In a statement, it added: 'We have supported a significant increase in the number of postgraduate medical training posts and since 2019, there has been an increase of 342 specialty training posts and 222 foundation posts. We now have approximately 1,900 trainees in secondary care training programmes, and 900 in foundation training, as well as 160 GP training places every year.
'We continue to work closely with governments across the UK to explore solutions.'
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