The Junior Doctor Contract – How have medical students been affected and what does this mean for the NHS?

Meghji et al. ¹ wrote in their article on the Junior Doctor Contract that increased staffing requirements of a ‘7-day NHS’ coupled with locum cost caps would cause ‘recruitment issues and potentially dangerous staffing levels’. We are concerned that issues of staff recruitment may be more intractable than even they surmise.

The effect of the proposed Junior Doctor Contract on current doctors has been well publicised; yet, current medical students stand to be hit even harder and for a greater number of years. ² Our concern is that this contract will force medical students away from the NHS in such a way that even current staffing requirements may fail to be met.

The Junior Doctor Contract disputes are having a negative effect on prospective medical students; a survey of 1550 school students reported that 37% of individuals who had once hoped to study medicine now no longer wish to. ³ Current medical students have marched in protest and over 7000 have signed a British Medical Association pledge of solidarity, but other than this, little is known about the intentions of these future doctors. ⁴

We recently surveyed 130 clinical medical students in a London medical school to gauge the effects of the Junior Doctor Contract; 89% reported feeling demoralised about their future careers in the NHS and 91% felt that the NHS would struggle to retain staff. If the contract is imposed, 35% stated that they would not work in the NHS at all, either moving to work abroad or leaving the medical profession altogether.

Protracted training periods and caps on locum costs may be important challenges to the staffing of a proposed ‘7-day service’, but if the contract debates and threat of imposition have had as large an effect on future doctors as the evidence suggests, we may be unable to sustain even current staffing levels.