Resident doctors on the Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) committee have spoken out about the growing crisis in medical specialty training.
DAUK spokespeople contributed to an article in a national newspaper, warning that increasing competition is leaving many young doctors in professional limbo and risking long-term damage to the NHS workforce.
Dr Shonnelly Novintan is DAUK’s Learn Not Blame lead.
Specialty training
She is currently working in a trust-grade post, and described trying to secure a higher specialty training position as ‘nerve-wracking’
Dr Novintan, who wants to train in plastic surgery, was unable to find a single training post in her region this year. Nationally, there were only 42 posts for more than 280 applicants.
Speaking to the i Paper, she said: “It’s very much on my mind that this is my second time applying.
“If I weren’t to get a job this time, that would mean two years out of training,” adding it was a “substantial time to put your life on hold”.
According to the i Paper, there were 92,000 applications for just 12,800 specialty training places across the UK in 2024.
That’s a ratio of 7.2 to one. In some fields, the competition is even steeper such as 98 applicants per role in sexual health and 74 per post in cardiothoracic surgery.
Medical student
Miss Maya Machesney is DAUK’s medical student co-lead and a final-year student at the University of Sheffield.
“It feels like a random lottery,” she said. “We’re worried that getting into specialty training will become less about passion and more about simply getting a job.”
DAUK has called for urgent expansion of training places to match the demand.
Dr Machesney said: “It’s a massive oversight of workforce planning.”
Read the article in full in the i Paper online
DAUK committee members are all volunteers and speak to the media about issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK or donating to our GoFundMe.
