Trainee surgeons left adrift

Hundreds of surgical trainees have been left adrift in the medical training system this year with little chance of ever progressing, BMJ Careers has learnt.

According to deanery statistics, no core trainees were shortlisted in general surgery at Yorkshire and the Humber Deanery, and none were appointed. At the Northern Deanery, none of the trainees in general surgery or trauma and orthopaedics surgery achieved a specialty trainee year 3 (ST3) post.

Just seven core trainees were given appointments in the Severn Deanery, whereas in the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery only a handful were able to progress to an ST3 post.

Recommendation for Medical Specialty Training 2011, a report published by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence in August, found that although many doctors in core training are unable to go beyond core trainee year 2 (CT2) level, surgery was the worst specialty affected, with less than 6% of posts leading to a certificate of completion of training.

Research presented by Alison Carr, dean adviser for Modernising Medical Careers England, to the Medical Programme Board this June showed that competition ratios ranged from 4.4 applicants a post to 14.9 applicants a post in different surgical specialties.

Dr Carr’s findings also showed that there was a bottleneck in the system for surgical trainees, some of whom have been waiting as long as 13 years for an ST3 post.

Shreelata Datta, chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors Committee, said the mismatch between CT2 and ST3 surgical training posts was “absolutely shocking” and could be costing the NHS several million pounds a year.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said surgical training had “always been highly competitive.” “The profession knows this and is supportive of it,” they added, “competition helps to ensure that the best candidates progress in the field.”

• For the full story, see: http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20001503