More trainees decide not to enter specialty training straight after foundation programme
BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7808 (Published 22 December 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7808
The proportion of doctors in training who chose not to move straight from the foundation programme into specialty training rose again in 2014, official figures show.
Figures from the UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO) showed that the proportion of foundation year 2 (F2) doctors who moved into a specialty training post in August 2014 was 59%—down from 64% in 2013, 67% in 2012, and 71% in 2011.12
The proportion of F2 doctors who did not enter specialty training and were still seeking employment as a doctor in the United Kingdom rose to 8.4%, up from 7.6% in 2013. The foundation programme was initially oversubscribed for places starting in 2013, but 85 F1 places and 164 F2 places remained unfilled at the start of August 2013.3 The UKFPO said it was likely that many of these places were filled at a later date.
The UKFPO surveyed all 7122 F2 doctors who successfully completed the foundation programme in August 2014, of whom 97% (6981) responded. The survey found that the proportion of respondents who had taken a career break after completing foundation training had increased from 9.4% in 2013 to 11.3% in 2014.
Of the doctors who achieved a specialty training post, just under a third (30%) were appointed to a run-through training programme, and a similar proportion (27%) were appointed to a core training programme. Some postgraduate deaneries and foundation schools allow foundation doctors to undertake F2 training outside the UK, provided the training programme was approved by the postgraduate dean.
The number of doctors undertaking F2 training outside the UK was lower in 2014 than in previous years. In 2014 nine doctors chose to undertake their F2 abroad, five going to New Zealand and others going to Australia, South Africa, and Singapore. In 2013, 23 doctors chose to undertake their F2 abroad; 48 did so in 2012, and 57 had done so in 2011. The UKFPO said that one explanation for this decrease could be that fewer schools now permit F2 abroad.
F1 doctors were surveyed on their career destinations: a total of 7548 (97%) doctors successfully completed the F1 year and were signed off.
The UKFPO also looked at the gender split of the foundation programme: it found that the female to male split was about 3:2, as 56.7% of F1 doctors and 57.6% of F2 doctors were female. This represented a small reduction in the proportion of female doctors from 2013, when 58.1% of F1 doctors and 59.7% of F2 doctors were female.