The RCP has responded to the latest workplace experiences report from the General Medical Council (GMC).
Professor Mumtaz Patel, RCP president, said:
‘These latest findings from the GMC once again paint a worrying picture. This new report confirms what we hear every day from resident doctors: that too many feel unsupported, undervalued and overworked. They are dissatisfied with their training, unsure about their future and unable to progress their careers, even as they deliver essential patient care.
‘Many of the findings in the GMC report echo our own recent next generation survey of more than 1,000 resident doctors, in which only 26% of respondents felt their current role was preparing them to submit a competitive application for the next stage in their career pathway.
'High workloads and pressure on capacity mean doctors are having to decline taking on additional work, and while a decrease from 2022, almost 1 in 5 (18%) doctors being at high risk of burnout is still far too many. It is especially concerning, though not surprising, to see the GMC highlight that doctors under 30 are more likely to be at high risk of burnout.
‘Our 2025 next generation survey found that only 44% of respondents were satisfied with their clinical training, with many highlighting that a lack of access to senior clinical and educational supervision is affecting their learning and confidence. ‘The UK government has committed to a 10 Year Workforce Plan for the NHS. This is a good first step – now we need to see some action. To get this right, government must proactively reach out to the medical profession and work in collaboration with doctors to improve things.
‘Retention is key, and the new 10 Year Workforce Plan and the national review of medical training are both crucial opportunities to make change – we need the government to tackle competition ratios and solve the bottlenecks in medical training as soon as possible.
‘The government must create and fund new postgraduate training posts for every single medical school space they’ve promised (distributed according to population need) and with 11% of doctors stopping or reducing time spent training due to workload pressures, we urgently need the government to set out how they will support senior doctors with the time and resource to teach, supervise and mentor the next generation of medics.’
Dr Catherine Rowan and Dr Anthony Martinelli, co-chairs of the RCP Resident Doctor Committee, said:
‘It’s incredibly demoralising for a resident doctor to work long hours delivering patient care only to find there are no training jobs available that will allow them to progress in their career. Only two out of five (39%) doctors surveyed by the GMC felt they could progress their career in the way that they wanted, with 15% of doctors taking hard steps to leave the UK profession in 2024.
‘In fact, a third (33%) of respondents to our next generation survey told us that they intend to leave the UK and work abroad in the future. Almost half (48.9%) of these respondents blamed this on burnout or concerns about personal well-being.
‘We need to sit up and take notice of these stats – if we want to bring down waiting lists and deliver high quality patient care, we cannot afford to lose these doctors from the NHS. It’s a waste of talent and taxpayers’ money – we trained these doctors as medical students. Now we need to create the training jobs that will give them the experience to become NHS consultants.
‘These findings from the GMC mirror what we see and feel as resident doctors – huge competition for limited training posts, patchy supervision and a lack of investment in our career development as senior clinicians and NHS leaders.’