Majority of our junior doctors are taking career breaks due to stress

JUNIOR doctors are ditching training to take career breaks or go abroad, a report has found.

Stressed-out millennials are either leaving the profession or deferring training, blaming pressures of the job.

An annual survey found most junior doctors now do not carry on with training after their two-year foundation programme.

Less than 43 per cent of medics who finished the two years of training after graduating from medical school chose to stay in the NHS and work towards becoming a GP or specialist.

This is the lowest proportion in the health service’s history and down from 71.3 per cent in 011.

By this time, their training will have already cost the public purse more than £ 90,000, according to British Medical Association figures.

Around one in seven questioned last year had chosen to have a break from the profession altogether, with some admitting they may not return.

Official figures reveal rises in the number of junior doctors shunning the NHS and instead going on to choose locum work, further studies or work overseas.

The figures are based on the career intentions of 6,890 medics who completed two years of foundation training after completing a medical degree.

Dr Jeeves Wijesuriya, BMA junior doctors committee chair, said: ‘These figures are certainly striking, but are not surprising for those of us working on the frontline of an under-resourced and struggling NHS.’

The numbers come amid a growing shortage of NHS doctors with the number of applications to UK medical schools last year dropping for the third year in a row and by more than 13 per cent since 013.

The UK is becoming increasingly reliant on foreigntrained medics. More than 40 per cent of those working in some areas of England were trained abroad.

The General Medical Council recently said the profession had hit ‘crunch point’ with demand for doctors far outstripping supply.