The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has co-signed a letter to the Health Secretary warning of an impending employment crisis for resident doctors.<\/p>\n
The letter to Wes Streeting, signed by a number of organisations representing NHS doctors including DAUK, calls for urgent reforms to workforce planning.<\/p>\n
The letter highlights the findings of a recent British Medical Association (BMA) survey showing more than half of doctors completing foundation training in 2025 will not have secured employment.<\/p>\n
This represents not only a personal and financial catastrophe for thousands of newly qualified doctors, but also a major risk to patient care in an overstretched NHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just a statistic,\u201d the letter states. \u201cIt represents a looming workforce crisis in the NHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThousands of newly qualified doctors, trained at great personal cost and national investment, are poised to enter unemployment while the health service struggles under immense clinical demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter cites Health Education England (HEE) figures that in 2025 more than 30,000 doctors applied for just 10,000 training positions.<\/p>\n
The government has pledged an additional 1,000 training posts over three years, but this figure, while welcome, \u2018is far from sufficient\u2019, the letter says.<\/p>\n
International recruitment is another key issue. The letter criticises the government\u2019s encouragement of international medical graduates (IMGs) to sit the PLAB (Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board) exam without a guarantee of employment or career development.<\/p>\n
It argues this risks creating false hope for doctors from abroad while worsening the UK\u2019s own workforce bottleneck.<\/p>\n
The letter also raises concerns over the expansion of medical school places without a corresponding increase in postgraduate training opportunities, as well as the growing reliance on physician assistants (PAs) in roles traditionally held by junior doctors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fast-track integration of PAs into clinical teams, often in roles traditionally filled by early-career doctors, has caused concern among junior doctors, especially given disparities in training, regulation, and accountability,\u201d it warns.<\/p>\n
DAUK and the letter\u2019s signatories are calling for a package of urgent reforms, including:<\/p>\n
The letter warns \u2018the combination of over-recruitment, inadequate training opportunities, and unclear workforce planning is leading to disillusionment\u2019.<\/p>\n
Many young doctors may be forced to leave the profession or emigrate to countries such as Australia, Canada, and the Gulf states, \u2018where their skills are valued and career progression is clearer\u2019.<\/p>\n
The letter concludes: \u201cThe NHS stands at a critical juncture. Without decisive intervention, we risk losing a generation of doctors \u2013 not from lack of talent or commitment, but because the system failed to offer them a viable future.<\/p>\n
The letter requests a formal response from the Health Secretary within three months and offers to meet to discuss potential solutions.<\/p>\n
Read the letter in full below.<\/p>\n
Please support our work by\u00a0joining DAUK<\/a>\u00a0or donating to\u00a0our GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Dear Rt Honourable Health Secretary Mr Wes Streeting MP,<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is deeply concerning that, according to a recent British Medical Association (BMA) survey, more than 52% of doctors completing their foundation training in the UK in 2025 will be without secured employment when their programmes end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not just a statistic, it represents a looming workforce crisis in the NHS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thousands of newly qualified doctors, trained at great personal cost and national investment, are poised to enter unemployment while the health service struggles under immense clinical demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A key driver of this crisis is the mismatch between the number of qualified doctors and the limited availability of structured training posts. In 2025, over 30,000 doctors applied for just 10,000 training positions. While the government\u2019s pledge to create an additional 1,000 training posts over three years is welcome, it is far from sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, the government continues to encourage international medical graduates (IMGs), many from developing countries, to sit the PLAB (Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board) exam, which enables them to work in the UK. PLAB test capacity has expanded significantly, yet there is no guarantee of suitable employment or career progression once these doctors arrive. This practice risks creating false hope, financial hardship, and brain drain in countries already struggling with healthcare workforce shortages, while adding to the oversupply crisis in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further pressure comes from the rapid expansion of UK medical school places, up around 25% over the past decade, without a proportionate increase in postgraduate training numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In parallel, the fast-track integration of physician assistants (PAs) into clinical teams, often in roles traditionally filled by early-career doctors, has caused concern among junior doctors, especially given disparities in training, regulation, and accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This combination of over-recruitment, inadequate training opportunities, and unclear workforce planning is leading to disillusionment. Many young doctors are now considering leaving the profession or emigrating to countries such as Australia, Canada, and the Gulf states, where their skills are valued and career progression is clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Urgent action is needed. We call on the government to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NHS stands at a critical juncture. Without decisive intervention, we risk losing a generation of doctors \u2013 not from lack of talent or commitment, but because the system failed to offer them a viable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We request a response to this letter within three months and are available to meet with you to discuss the matter and explore appropriate solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Signatory organisations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Prof Aamer Sarfraz, President, Association of Pakistani Physicians and Surgeons UK (APPS UK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prof Amit Sinha, President, British International Doctors Associations (BIDA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prof Amjad Shad, President, Nishterian Alumni UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Atef El-Kholy, President, British Egyptian Medical Association (BEMA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Colin Hutchinson, Chair, Doctors for the NHS<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Ellen Welch, Co-Chair, Doctors Association UK (DAUK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Faisal Raja, President, Rawalpindi Medical University Alumni UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Hina Shahid, Chair, Muslim Doctors Association (MDA) and Allied Health Professional CIC<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Irfan Rashid, Chair, Allama Iqbal Medical College Alumni UK (AIMCA UK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Javed Arain, Chair, Quaid E Azam Medical College Alumni<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Nabeel Arman, Vice President, Sudan Doctors Union UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Nadeem Sajjad Raja, President, Association of Pakistani Physicians Of Northern Europe (APPNE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Saadia Alvi, President, Punjab Medical College Alumni UK (PMCAUK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Shahid Latif, Chair, British Pakistani Psychiatric Association (BPPA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Waseem Khan, Chair, Association Of Pakistani Physicians And Surgeons, Scotland<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has co-signed a letter to the Health Secretary warning of an impending employment crisis for resident doctors. The letter to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,58],"tags":[333,700,683],"class_list":["post-1417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-the-nhs","tag-health-secretary","tag-resident-doctors","tag-wes-streeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\nDoctors without jobs: a growing crisis in the NHS workforce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n