UP TO 100 Scottish doctors face unemployment next year because of a shortage of jobs, wasting £25m of taxpayers' money.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the number of jobs available to junior doctors next year in the NHS across Scotland will fall far short of the number of applicants.
Doctors' leaders last night warned that those who are unsuccessful could be for
ced to abandon the NHS despite years of training that has cost the taxpayer £250,000 per doctor. And they predicted huge pressure for hospitals next summer, with managers rushing to match junior doctors to vacant posts.
Last night patients' groups described the revelation as "an almighty mess". The move to train more doctors was an attempt to help fill a recruitment crisis at the most senior levels in the NHS.
Although more doctors are now being put through medical school, there are not enough jobs for them to go to. The problem comes as the number of long-term consultant vacancies stands at an all-time high, with 4.2% of posts lying empty for six months or more.
In summer 2008 there will be 1,382 junior doctors who have trained in Scotland chasing just 1,279 vacancies in the NHS. They also face stiff competition from colleagues from England and overseas who are also allowed to apply for jobs in Scotland.
Dr Alan Robertson, the head of the British Medical Association's junior doctors committee, warned many could be forced to quit medicine altogether if they do not get a suitable job. He said: "There will be a large number of applications and it will be a big problem to sort through them. We are encouraging Scottish applicants not to undersell themselves and do the best they can. We may have some good candidates from down south applying for jobs in Scotland.
"We want an increase in posts, but we have been told there is no funding. This raises the prospect of doctors being unemployed after seven years of training post-graduation. It costs the taxpayer £250,000 to put someone through medical school. As a worst-case scenario they could leave medicine, which is taxpayers' money wasted."
The number of jobs available next year for junior doctors was revealed yesterday in an open letter to all applicants from the Chief Medical Officer Dr Harry Burns. In his letter, Burns admits that next year's process of matching doctors to jobs will be "difficult" with "areas of concern and controversy".
There were problems with the junior doctor recruitment process this summer, when there were also far more applicants than vacancies.
Operations had to be postponed to allow managers time to deal with a last-minute dash to fit staff into vacant posts. Doctors took to the streets in protest.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We expect that, as has always been the case, a proportion of Scottish doctors will move to England and elsewhere at this point in their training. We expect there will be flows in both directions across the Border with England and with other countries."
The full article contains 517 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
