The RCP has responded to reports that UK medical graduates will be prioritised for foundation and postgraduate training spaces under the UK government 10 Year Health Plan.
Dr Mumtaz Patel, RCP president said: ‘Doctors entering medical school in the UK should not have to worry about whether there will be a job for them after foundation training. Through our next generation campaign, we are actively exploring ways in which we can improve training pathways and experience for all doctors.
‘International medical graduates (IMGs) are also a vital part of the medical workforce, delivering high quality patient care to our diverse population, and contribute a huge amount of expertise to the NHS every day. IMGs can face significant challenges when working and training in a new healthcare system, which is why in 2024, we published RCP guidance on educational and career support for locally employed doctors (LEDs) and IMGs.
‘As the RCP made clear earlier this year, the NHS urgently needs to address competition ratios for specialty training and ensure that publicly funded medical school places lead to the recruitment of more NHS doctors. We have successfully campaigned for the doubling of medical school places and now we need a commensurate increase in foundation, internal medicine (IMT) and specialty training places.
‘The NHS has been under-doctored and under-funded for years. With an ageing population, many of whom are living with frailty and chronic conditions, we urgently need better national workforce planning. We need the right people, working in the right settings, to provide the right care – our patients deserve access to the highest quality healthcare and our residents deserve excellent medical training.
‘One thing is very clear – the current medical training system is not working for applicants, providers and most importantly, our patients. We have explored what needs to change in our submission to the NHS England review of medical training.’
Dr Anthony Martinelli and Dr Catherine Rowan, Resident Doctor Committee co-chairs said:
‘Rising competition ratios for entering IMT and specialty training are not sustainable and have left many of our resident doctor colleagues in great distress, unable to progress in their training.
‘Recognising NHS experience during the medical training application process would be a sensible and pragmatic step to ensure that UK graduates can secure training jobs, ultimately developing into our consultant physicians of the future.
‘We have also been clear that IMGs must not be made scapegoats for failures in national workforce planning. Regardless of these specific proposals, there will remain extensive challenges with our current recruitment system: we will be pushing for radical reform as part of the postgraduate medical training review.’