Hunt: Keep new doctors in the NHS for five years
JUNIOR doctors may have to work for the NHS for more than five years after they graduate – or pay back their training costs.
Announcing the plan last night, Jeremy Hunt stressed that it costs the taxpayer £230,000 to train each doctor in England.
Under current rules, students are free to leave the health service as soon as they finish their degree, although most put in at least two years’ work to qualify for registration with the General Medical Council.
But the Health Secretary, who will today launch a public consultation, wants to tie doctors to the NHS longer- term, by adopting rules already used by the armed forces.
Mr Hunt will ask how long a minimum term of service should be, with the longest option given as ‘more than five years’. Hundreds of junior doctors are thought to have abandoned NHS careers after last year’s bruising row over working hours.
That argument, which saw doctors walk out on strike several times, ended when Mr Hunt forced through a new contract despite British Medical Association opposition.
Many doctors are thought to have left the UK to work in Australia and New Zealand, while others have taken up lucrative locum and agency jobs. Mr Hunt’s proposal would stop doctors taking that option.
He said the move was mainly necessary as part of plans to train an extra 1,500 doctors every year, a scheme announced in October.
‘By expanding our supply of homegrown doctors and proposing that they serve patients in the NHS for a minimum term, we will ensure taxpayer investment in the NHS is returned,’ Mr Hunt said.
‘While we are proud of our workforce, for too long the NHS has relied too heavily upon locum and agency doctors, and superb staff from countries whose need for them is arguably greater than ours – all the while budding medics in England are turned away from medical school due to a lack of training places.’
Currently more than 6,000 university training places are available each year for prospective new doctors. This will rise to 7,500 a year from 2018/19. Under the scheme, medical students would have to agree to serve for a continuous minimum period.
‘If they chose to leave early or go into private employment, they would be required to repay some of the cost of their education.
There would be certain exemptions, such as maternity leave.
The British Medical Association reiterated its opposition to the plan, warning that it risked demotivating doctors further.
When the idea of a minimum service term was first raised at the Conservative Party conference last autumn, its chairman Dr Mark Porter wrote to Mr Hunt saying: ‘We believe that compelling medical graduates to work for the NHS for a minimum period of service, or face penalties, is misguided.
‘Patients deserve a health service in which doctors want to work, not one in which they are forced to work.’
He added: ‘We believe the Government would do better to reflect on the reasons why doctors consider leaving the NHS.’
‘Ensure a return on taxpayers’ cash’