BMJ  2008;336:990 (3 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39555.457060.AD

Head to Head

Does it matter that medical graduates don’t get jobs as doctors? Yes

¹ Winchester, Hampshire S023 9TE

Last year’s shortfall in training places looks set to be repeated. Graham Winyard believes this is a betrayal of students’ expectations, but Alan Maynard (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39555.500613.AD) thinks it is inevitable if patients are to get the best care

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Before last year, this question would have been seen as academic and irrelevant, more colloquially a complete "no brainer." As a nation we invest in medical training because we want the services of doctors, not to produce management consultants or playwrights. The thousands of young people who compete fiercely for medical school places each year do so because they want to work as doctors, not gain an expensive general education. Of course not all medical graduates pursue lifelong careers in medicine. Doctors have always made high profile contributions in other fields—Jonathan Miller and David Owen are good contemporary examples in the United Kingdom. But the cohort studies of the UK Medical Careers Research Group clearly show that more than 95% work in medicine in the long term, though not necessarily in the UK or the NHS (M Goldacre, personal communication).

Historically, the UK never trained sufficient doctors to meet the . . . [Full text of this article]

Staffing needs

Senseless waste

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Author's reply

Graham P Winyard
bmj.com, 16 Jun 2008 [Full text]