‘I've wanted to be a doctor my whole life but after seven years of training I can't get a job'

Telegraph

16-07-2025

After seven years of medical training, gruelling hospital shifts and more than £100,000 in student debt, Dr Luke Craddock can't believe he is now facing unemployment. The NHS is chronically short of staff, and his training has cost an estimated £250,000 – yet when his contract ends in early August, there may be no job for him.
The 26-year-old from Nottinghamshire, whose lifelong goal was to become the first doctor in his family, is devastated. 'It's completely demoralising and depressing,' he says. 'I feel exhausted and betrayed. After seven years of training, it's hard to accept that I'm now facing unemployment when the NHS desperately needs doctors.'
Dr Craddock is one of thousands of junior doctors finishing their Foundation Year 2 placements this summer with no job to go to – at least not in medicine. A shortage of specialist training posts, the next step on the ladder to becoming consultants, has left many newly qualified doctors scrambling for a dwindling number of non-training roles and locum shifts. Some are leaving the profession altogether, while others are relocating abroad, where their skills are in high demand.
The crisis stems from a surge in medical school places without a corresponding rise in postgraduate training posts. Meanwhile, overseas recruitment has soared since 2019, when medicine was added to the shortage occupation list and rules prioritising UK candidates were scrapped.
According to a workforce report by the General Medical Council (GMC), in 2023, 27 per cent of all graduate doctors in specialist training came from abroad, up from 18 per cent in 2018. Amongst those training to become GPs, more than half obtained their medical degrees outside the UK. 'In addition, there are unsuccessful applicants reapplying in subsequent years, causing an ongoing and worsening bottleneck effect,' Craddock says.
He's desperately hoping it's not the end of a dream he's held since his teenage years – a dream he's worked relentlessly to achieve. He secured his place at medical school through a foundation programme for disadvantaged students, a fiercely competitive route with 17 applicants for every place.
'Getting into medical school felt like a long shot, but I was fully committed and thankfully, the work I put in paid off,' he says.
'I was the only student in my sixth form that year to secure a place at medical school, and one of only a handful ever to do so.' His father, an ex-miner, and his mother, a community nurse, were immensely proud when he received the news that he'd won a place at Nottingham Medical School. 'It's a moment we'll never forget,' he says.
Not only did he have to work hard to complete an exceptionally challenging degree, but he also supported himself financially by taking summer jobs cleaning student accommodation and mentoring junior medics. Last year, he devoted all his free time to preparing the portfolio required for specialty training – a demanding mix of audits, teaching, research, leadership and exams, most of it completed outside regular hours.
He hoped this would be enough to secure at least one of the three specialty training posts he applied for, including internal medicine and histopathology. Competition for posts has always been tough, but when he started medical school, these were specialties he felt he had a decent chance of entering.
Since then, however, competition has risen exponentially. The British Medical Association says more than 33,000 doctors applied for fewer than 13,000 specialty training posts this year. Craddock was among around 20,000 unsuccessful applicants.
'Despite knowing the system is broken, with so many doctors who have strong portfolios still missing out on training posts, I can't help but feel like a failure,' he says.
'It is a heartbreaking waste of talent and taxpayer investment, and it is hard not to feel like the current system is pushing us out.'
After years of burnout and carrying responsibility for patients' lives, Craddock has started considering jobs outside medicine. 'As I approach 27, I want stability,' he says. 'I want to settle down and start a family. But with no job security and no clear path forward, it's hard to plan anything at all.'
With so many newly qualified doctors out of work, even temporary non-training jobs are drying up. Senior house officer positions – the stepping stone between foundation training and specialty training – are scarce, and competition is fierce, with many posts attracting hundreds of applicants.
'I love my job and do not want to stop working as a doctor,' Craddock says. 'However, my contract finishes at the beginning of August and if I do not find employment as a doctor within a month or two, I will have to look at other sectors.'
As more early-career doctors are forced to delay or abandon specialty training, the pipeline of future consultants is narrowing. According to NHS figures from 2023, nearly half of current consultants are expected to retire by 2035 – just as patient demand continues to rise and waiting lists hover near record highs.
It's likely patients will feel the effects, too. 'If we had more doctors, patients would receive better care,' Craddock says. 'If we had more specialists, waiting lists would shrink more quickly. We still have one of the lowest numbers of doctors per capita in Europe, so we need more doctors.'
In response to mounting pressure, the Government's new '10 Year Health Plan' for England promises to prioritise UK-trained doctors for training posts and limit overseas recruitment to just 10 per cent of new hires by 2035. An additional 1,000 specialty training places will be created over the next three years in high-need areas.
Craddock welcomes the announcement, while also acknowledging the vital role of overseas-trained doctors in keeping the NHS running. 'It doesn't make sense to continue recruiting doctors trained overseas if we cannot first guarantee employment for doctors trained in the UK.'
So far, the Government has offered no timeline or details on how the changes will be implemented, and Craddock believes they will come too late for his cohort and those completing medical training in the near future. For now, he and thousands of others remain in limbo. 'Many doctors, myself included, face an anxiety-filled wait to see where we stand,' he says. 'I honestly don't know what I'm going to do.'